Scholars@Duke
Patrick Tyjuan Smith

Patrick Tyjuan Smith

Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics
Divinity School

Selected Publications

Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Bioethics: Recommendations from the Association of Bioethics Program Directors Presidential Task Force.

Journal Article The American journal of bioethics : AJOB · October 2024 Recent calls to address racism in bioethics reflect a sense of urgency to mitigate the lethal effects of a lack of action. While the field was catalyzed largely in response to pivotal events deeply rooted in racism and other structures of oppression embedd ... Full text Cite

Addressing Anti-Black Racism in Bioethics: Responding to the Call.

Journal Article The Hastings Center report · March 2022 As a field concerned with ethical issues in health and health care, particularly how structures, policies, and practices unfairly advantage some and disadvantage others, bioethics has a moral obligation to address the long-standing challenges that racism h ... Full text Cite

Speaking Volumes: The Encyclopedia of Bioethics and Racism.

Journal Article The Hastings Center report · March 2022 This essay takes as its starting point the claim that addressing anti-Black racism is essential to the work of bioethics in the United States. The essay examines whether and how racism has been addressed in the field's central reference work, the Encyclope ... Full text Cite

Respect for Communities in Health Justice.

Conference The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics · January 2022 Health justice seeks, both conceptually and in practice, to strengthen community engagement and empowerment as an integral means of addressing health disparities. In this essay, we explore the nature of communities and their roles in health care/public hea ... Full text Cite

Racism, Broadly Speaking, and the Work of Bioethics: Some Conceptual Matters.

Journal Article The American journal of bioethics : AJOB · February 2021 Full text Cite

"'There's No Harm in Talking'…True…But It Depends on How We Talk and What We Then Do".

Journal Article The American journal of bioethics : AJOB · December 2020 Full text Cite

On physician-assisted death and the killing of innocents: Some temperate philosophical reflections

Journal Article International Philosophical Quarterly · September 1, 2019 This essay highlights an argument for the moral impermissibility of physician-assisted death based on the prohibition of killing innocents that unfolds in four phases. First, I identify the operative moral principle and then develop a moral argument based ... Full text Cite

Training Community Clergy in Serious Illness: Balancing Faith and Medicine.

Journal Article Journal of religion and health · August 2018 Community-based clergy are highly engaged in helping seriously ill patients address spiritual concerns at the end of life (EOL). While they desire EOL training, no data exist in guiding how to conceptualize a clergy-training program. The objective of this ... Full text Cite

Ramsey on "Choosing Life" at the End of Life: Conceptual Analysis of Euthanasia and Adjudicating End-of-Life Care Options

Journal Article Christian Bioethics · June 26, 2018 Ramsey sees life as a gift and a trust given to people by God. This theological understanding of human life frames his judgment of the immorality of euthanasia in its many forms. Assuming Ramsey's theological insights and framing of this issue, I highlight ... Full text Cite

The Views of Clergy Regarding Ethical Controversies in Care at the End of Life.

Journal Article Journal of pain and symptom management · January 2018 ContextAlthough religion often informs ethical judgments, little is known about the views of American clergy regarding controversial end-of-life ethical issues including allowing to die and physician aid in dying or physician-assisted suicide (PAD ... Full text Cite

Seeking and Accepting: U.S. Clergy Theological and Moral Perspectives Informing Decision Making at the End of Life.

Journal Article Journal of palliative medicine · October 2017 BackgroundPeople with serious illness frequently rely on religion/spirituality to cope with their diagnosis, with potentially positive and negative consequences. Clergy are uniquely positioned to help patients consider medical decisions at or near ... Full text Cite

U.S. Clergy Religious Values and Relationships to End-of-Life Discussions and Care.

Journal Article Journal of pain and symptom management · June 2017 ContextAlthough clergy interact with approximately half of U.S. patients facing end-of-life medical decisions, little is known about clergy-congregant interactions or clergy influence on end-of-life decisions.ObjectiveThe objective was to ... Full text Cite

How Community Clergy Provide Spiritual Care: Toward a Conceptual Framework for Clergy End-of-Life Education.

Journal Article Journal of pain and symptom management · April 2016 ContextCommunity-based clergy are highly engaged in helping terminally ill patients address spiritual concerns at the end of life (EOL). Despite playing a central role in EOL care, clergy report feeling ill-equipped to spiritually support patients ... Full text Cite

Clergy Views on a Good Versus a Poor Death: Ministry to the Terminally Ill.

Journal Article Journal of palliative medicine · December 2015 BackgroundClergy are often important sources of guidance for patients and family members making medical decisions at the end-of-life (EOL). Previous research revealed spiritual support by religious communities led to more aggressive care at the EO ... Full text Cite

Whose role? Oncology practitioners' perceptions of their role in providing spiritual care to advanced cancer patients.

Journal Article Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · September 2015 PurposeThe purpose of this study is to determine how oncology nurses and physicians view their role in providing spiritual care (SC), factors influencing this perception, and how this belief affects SC provision.MethodsThis is a survey-ba ... Full text Cite

Toward a common grace Christian bioethics: A reformed protestant engagement with H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.

Journal Article Christian Bioethics · January 1, 2014 This article should be thought to be more of an engagement with the Christian bioethics approach of Engelhardt as opposed to a response. There is much in Engelhardt's critique of secular bioethics and his proposal for Christian bioethics that is right-head ... Full text Cite