Associate Professor of Theology Dr. Irene Alexander published an award-winning article in September 2019 in The Linacre Quarterly titled “Humility Before New Scientific Evidence: We No Longer Have Moral Certainty That Brain Death Is True Death.” She is currently working on a second article, commissioned by the National Catholic Bioethics Center for publication this fall.
Her first article explored new developments in science that should influence the Church’s moral teachings on brain death, and her second article will trace the rationale over the last several decades that led to the conclusion that brain death is death. Implications of Alexander’s research include the permissibility of vital organ donation from patients who have been declared brain-dead.
“I tend to be interested in topics…that would serve the Church and the world.”
IRENE ALEXANDER
“I tend to be interested in topics that are not fully settled, where there are still intellectual questions, because it seems like there needs to be a lot of really good thinking and analysis of them in a way that would serve the Church and the world,” Alexander said.
Alexander noted that her teaching at UDallas is a source of research for her. Engaging in complex topics with her students in the Advanced Bioethics course she teaches sparks both questions and answers in her search for
the truth.