Profile Photo: Michael Sleasman, Ph.D.

Michael
Sleasman, Ph.D.

Phone: 903.233.4044
Email: MichaelSleasman@letu.edu

  • Professor of Bioethics

  • Director of Bioethics Programs


I am honored to be part of the bioethics program at LeTourneau University. As the Christian Polytechnic university, it is truly a unique place to teach and study. I have the privilege to work with students, faculty, and staff who are deeply committed to a Christian approach to educational formation and broader engagement within their respective disciplines and professional contexts. As a theologian in bioethics, I work at the intersection of questions surrounding Christian faithfulness, human flourishing, and the opportunities and challenges of our MedTech world. I am especially drawn to engaging with frontier developments in medicine, science, and technology and examining the distinct ways in which a biblically committed, and theologically informed approach to bioethics may foster responses that promote both our individual human flourishing and common humanity.

Before coming to LeTourneau, I served as the Director of Bioethics Degree Programs and Associate Professor of Bioethics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Trinity Graduate School for 7 years, and prior to that served for 12 years as the Managing Director and Research Scholar at The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, where I oversaw the Center’s research agenda and online resource development. Over the years I also have served as an affiliate professor, adjunct instructor, and online course tutor at the college and graduate level in the areas of philosophy, theology, ethics/bioethics, and cultural engagement. My wife, Cindy, and I have three children.

You can see more of my work here: https://letu.academia.edu/MichaelSleasman

 

Education

  • Ph.D., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2008
  • M.Div., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002
  • B.A., Malone College, 1998

 


Research Interests

  • Biotech and Emerging Technology Ethics
  • Christian Hippocratism
  • Cultural Hermeneutics and Engagement
  • Philosophy and Theology of Technology
  • Theological Bioethics
  • Virtue Theory and Human Flourishing

 

Selected Publications

  • Editor, Ethics & Medicine: An International Journal of Bioethics, published by LeTourneau University (2020-present).
  • Co-editor with Edward Grant and Heather Zeiger, Fetal Tissue Research and Christian Bioethics: A Review of the Scientific Developments, Policy Landscape, and Ethical Considerations (2022 Edition; The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, 2022), https://www.cbhd.org/fetal-tissue-report.
  • “Ethics in the Era of Precision Medicine,” in Principles and Applications of Engineering in Medicine, edited by Lawrence Chan and William Tang (CRC Press, 2019).
  • Co-authored with Megan Best and Timothy E. Schlub. “Protestant Christian Attitudes to Assisted Reproductive Techniques,” Human Reproduction Open, September 2, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1093/hropen/hoz018.
  • Guest Editor with D. Christopher Ralston, special themed issue “Bioethics,” Journal of the Christian Institute on Disability 6, no. 1–2 (Spring/Summer, Fall/Winter 2017).
  • “Bioethics,” in The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Daniel Treier and Walter Elwell (Baker Academic, 2017)
  • Co-authored with Paige Comstock Cunningham, “Bioethics, the Global Church, and Family Planning.” Christian Journal for Global Health 4, no. 3 (2017): 6–11, https://doi.org/10.15566/cjgh.v4i3.203.
  • Co-authored with Gregory Rutecki, “A Christian Physician: Combining Conscience, Philanthropia, and Calling,” Christian Bioethics 22, no. 3 (December 2016): 340–362, https://doi.org/10.1093/cb/cbw014.
  • “Nanotechnology” and “Robots,” in the Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics, edited by Henk ten Have (Springer, 2016).
  • Co-editor with Michael Cox, Examining POLST: A Special Report of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, supplement, Dignitas 22, no. 4 (Winter 2015), https://www.cbhd.org/dignitas-issues/dignitas-vol-22-no-4-supplement-winter-2015.
  • Co-authored with Paige Comstock Cunningham, “Exploitation in the Global Medical Enterprise: Bioethics & Social Injustice,” in Social Injustice: What Evangelicals Need to Know about the World, edited by Michael Cooper and William Moulder (Timothy Center, 2011).
  • “Bioethics Past, Present, and Future: Important Signposts in Human Dignity,” in Beyond Suffering Study Guide, edited by Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Bundy, and Pat Verbal (Joni & Friends, 2011, 2025); and republished in Beyond Suffering for the Next Generation Study Guide. Edited by Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Bundy, and Pat Verbal (Joni & Friends, 2015). Available at https://www.cbhd.org/cbhd-resources/fetal-tissue-research-and-christian-bioethics-editorial-introduction
  • “Post-Conservative Theology” and “New Technologies and Christianity,” in the Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, edited by George Kurian (Blackwell, 2011).
  • Co-editor with Kevin Vanhoozer and Charles Anderson, Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends (Baker Academic, 2007).