Larry Churchill, PhD, MDiv

Churchill discusses his upbringing in Hector, Arkansas, and his education at Southwestern (now Rhodes College) and Duke University. He reflects on his early career as a Presbyterian minister and his transition to bioethics. Churchill discussed his career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including the establishment of a social medicine department and the creation of an ethics center that highlighted the importance of humanities and social sciences in medical education. Churchill detailed his extensive work in clinical ethics rotations while at Vanderbilt and created the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society. He also describes his work in bioethics as it relates to healthcare reform; he recalls scholarship of his in which he advocated for universal coverage based on self-interest rather than altruism. He discusses the Clinton era healthcare reform failure as being due to vested interests and the persistence of healthcare lobbyists.

He emphasized the role of narrative in ethics and the need for a holistic approach that includes reason, memory, imagination, and emotions. Churchill also touched on the challenges of healthcare commodification and the importance of respect and cultural humility in bioethics. Professor Churchill shares his recent work that focuses on the significant health impacts of climate change and the need for bioethicists to address it. The interview concludes with Churchill reflecting on aging and his current work which integrates his bioethics and philosophy training with a holistic view of life that includes gratitude, awe, spiritual growth, and compassion.