Three medical ethicists take varied and often opposing stands on the ethical, social, and political issues that arise when religious and medical practices conflict. The interchange focuses on the tensions between the belief systems, institutional practices, and health-related decisions of Christian Scientists and those of a secularized medically oriented, broader society.

Peggy DesAutels is assistant professor of philosophy and associate director of the Ethics Center at the University of South Florida. Margaret P. Battin is professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah and the author of numerous books, including Ethics in the Sanctuary: Examining the Practicesof Organized Religion (Yale) and The Least Worst Death: Essays in Bioethics on the End of Life (Rowman & Littlefield). Larry May is professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis and has authored numerous books, including The Socially Responsive Self (Chicago). He is also the co-editor of Rethinking Masculinity (Rowman & Littlefield).