Co-operation with evil
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Can a pro-life Christian anaesthetist take part in surgical abortions, even if they are simply ensuring the mother is safely put under and do not do the actual abortion? What about the nurse checking blood pressure earlier on the ward? Or the porter wheeling the mother into theatre? Or the person who made the scalpel? In this episode, prompted by a question from an anaesthetist listener wrestling with this precise dilemma, we try to think through the theological problem of ‘co-operation with evil’. To what extent, if at all, can believers do things which enmesh them with other people’s wrong deeds? What did Jesus mean by ‘render to Caesar what is Caesar’s’? Is it ever possible to maintain our Christian integrity in our fallen and ever more interconnected world? How can we decide where to draw the lines?
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Released on 26 Feb 2025
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