Book Launch - Befriending the North Wind: Children, Moral Agency, and the Good Death

Dr Robyn Boeré, an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Theology in the University of Oslo, will be presenting on her new book, Befriending the North Wind: Children, Moral Agency, and the Good Death. The death of a child horrifies. We recoil at its mention. Images of dead or dying children impose themselves on our attention in ways that challenge us to change. Yet the topic of dying children is studiously avoided. When we do take notice, we paint children as victims, innocent of both blame and agency, passive in the face of suffering. Children die secluded in homes and hospitals, allowing society to carry on as though it were not happening.

Speaker

Robyn Boeré is an associate Professor in Theological Ethics at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo. Her work in moral theology focuses on children, moral agency, and the meaning of the moral life. A native of the big skies of Western Canada, the peripatetic academic life has previously led her to Toronto, Canada and St. Andrews, Scotland. She lives in Oslo, Norway, with her husband and children.

Respondents:

•    Dr Carl Hildebrand, Assistant Professor, Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
•    Dr Gillian Chu, Assistant Professor, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist University