June 2–5, 2026
The Seminar
The seminar invites students to examine the central ethical questions that arise in the everyday practice of medicine and to interpret those questions through a moral framework drawing from both natural law and medicine’s traditional orientation toward the patient’s health. This framework will be contrasted with principlism and consequentialism as participants consider what sort of practice medicine is, whether it has a rational end or goal, and how medicine contributes to human flourishing.
The seminar also will consider clinical cases to examine ethical concerns that arise perennially in the practice of medicine, including: the nature of the clinician-patient relationship; the limits of medicine, the meaning of autonomy, the place of conscience in the physician’s work, the difference between an intended effect and a side effect, proportionality, human dignity, sexuality and reproduction, the beginning of life, disability, end-of-life care, and death. The seminar aims to equip participants with intellectual tools that can help them discern how to practice medicine well in the face of medicine’s clinical challenges and moral complexities.
This seminar is open to rising and current medical students or residents, as well as other health professions students.
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Farr Curlin, MD, is Josiah Trent Professor of Medical Humanities in the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, & History of Medicine and Co-Director of the Theology, Medicine and Culture Initiative (TMC) at Duke University. Dr. Curlin has worked to bring attention to the intersection of medicine, ethics, and theology.
In 2012 he helped to found both the University of Chicago’s Program on Medicine and Religion and the annual Conference on Medicine and Religion. Since 2015, through Duke Divinity School’s TMC Initiative, he and colleagues have brought graduate theological training to those with vocations to health care. Starting in 2023, Dr. Curlin also is working with colleagues across North America to develop the Hippocratic Society, an association whose mission is forming clinicians in the practice and pursuit of good medicine. He is co-author, with Chris Tollefsen, of The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession (Notre Dame University Press, 2021), as well as more than 150 articles and book chapters addressing the moral and spiritual dimensions of medical practice.
Christopher Tollefsen is a professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He has published over 125 articles in journals and edited collections, and a similar number of popular essays in venues such as Public Discourse, First Things, and National Review.
He is the author of several books, including Lying and Christian Ethics and the forthcoming Killing and Christian Ethics (both with Cambridge University Press); and the co-author of The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession (with Dr. Farr Curlin) and Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (with Robert P. George).
In 2019-20, he served as a commissioner on the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights. He has twice been a visiting fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University, and in 2024-25 was a visiting fellow at the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.
What Is Included
Full tuition costs for the seminar
Three nights of on-campus housing
Most meals during the duration of the seminar (participants may cover one or two of their own meals)
Costs
Participants must cover their own transportation costs to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Purchase a copy of The Way of Medicine (read in advance and bring to the seminar).
Arrival to Durham, NC
All students must arrival to Duke University by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2, 2026 to check into campus housing. The seminar begins on the morning of Wednesday, June 3 and concludes at noon on Friday, June 5.
Students are responsible for their own transportation and costs and are welcome to choose whichever method of arrival suits their needs. Those who will be driving to Durham will receive parking permits for the full duration of the seminar.
Schedule
Tuesday, June 2
By 4:00 p.m. - Check into campus housing
5:30 p.m - Welcome and Introductions
6:00 p.m. - Dinner
6:30 p.m. - First Seminar Session
Wednesday, June 3
9:00 a.m. - Seminar Day Begins
Lunch
5:15 p.m. - Seminar Day Concludes
Thursday, June 4
9:00 a.m. - Seminar Day Begins
Lunch
5:15 p.m. - Seminar Day Concludes
Friday, June 5
9:00 a.m. - Seminar Day Begins
10:30 p.m. - Seminar Concludes
Students check out from campus housing and depart Duke University.
Apply Today!
This seminar is open to rising and current medical students or residents, as well as other health professions students.
We encourage those interested to apply early, as applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and the seminar is limited to 22 participants.
All applicants must submit the following via the application form
A current resume or C.V.
A one-page cover letter discussing the reasons for your interest in the seminar and an overview of any relevant experience in the seminar’s topic.
*We can only admit students who already have valid U.S. visa status or authorization, as we are unable to sponsor or arrange immigration eligibility.
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