In the Spotlight: Robert Orr

Baptist Press isn't usually a place where you'd see a profile of a bioethics scholar, let alone one whose work is coherent and thoughtful work has included making difficult and subtle decisions with patients at the end of life. But Tammi Reed Ledbetter, on the scene at Criswell College in Dallas where the Southern Baptist Convention is holding a big bioethics shin dig this week, has interviewed Bob Orr, physician and long-time clinical ethics scholar.

Orr, who has taught at Loma Linda and U. Vermont, is a clinical ethicist - a bioethics person who does ethics consults and is well trained in that practice. He trained at McGill in medicine and U. Chicago in clinical ethics - and is now the clinical director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity in Chicago and a board member of the anti-stem cell research group "Do No Harm." He is also one of the best known clinical ethicists in the history of that practice, and arguably one of the most skilled.

In the profile, Orr laments that

“Sadly, over time, the voice of the theologian has gotten weaker and weaker and less listened to as the baton was handed over -- first to philosophers. Then clinicians —- the physicians, nurses and social workers who deal with patients daily -- became involved and engaged.”

And he's also incredibly ecumenical, doubtless something Tammi Reed would have suppressed could she have spelled it:

“Under the shadow of forgiveness, difficult decisions are possible.” Orr said he is distressed “when I see two Christians going at each other” instead of engaging in a discussion that leads to responsible action."

Among those in bioethics who are genuinely interested in the relationship of medicine and faith, Bob Orr is one of the most thoughtful, quietly working carefully on dozens of interesting projects. This isn't the ideal profile of Orr, but it made us think of him and his good work.