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SMU Associate Professor Alida Liberman, Ph.D., delivered the 2021 Maguire Public Scholar Lecture on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.

Her lecture addresses whether exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandates (e.g., from an employer or university) should be accommodated as conscientious objections, understood as penalty-free exemptions to a law or policy based on moral or religious disagreement with the policy. Liberman develops a framework for assessing the legitimacy of conscientious objection claims by determining whether they violate the basic competencies needed to be a minimally decent member of a profession or community. In the case of vaccine mandates, these include epistemic competencies (such as avoiding relying on factual misunderstandings when making community-impacting decisions), relational competencies (such as avoiding free-riding and refraining from harming others in the exercise of your liberties), and normative competencies (which require having an accurate understanding of what you are responsible for and how your actions affect others). Liberman argues many vaccine refusals violate one or more of these competencies, and accordingly should not be permitted as a matter of conscientious objection.

Renowned scholar Professor Charles E. Curran is the Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values and author of the chapter "Christian Ethics, the University, and the Broader Human Society" in the new publication Ethics at the Heart of Higher Education. A pillar in the field of theology for over 40 years, Curran was the first recipient of the John Courtney Murray Award of the Catholic Theological Society of America for distinguished achievement in theology and the winner of the American Publishers Award for Professional Scholarly Excellence in Theology and Religious Studies (PROSE). Professor Rita Kirk is an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and the William F. May Endowed Director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

Please visit smu.edu/ethics for more information on the Maguire Ethics Center.

Professor Robert Howell is an SMU Dedman Family Distinguished Professor, Philosophy Department Chair and author of the chapter "Should Ethics Be Taught? Ethics in the Secular University" in the new publication "Ethics at the Heart of Higher Education." Professor Rita Kirk is an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and the William F. May Endowed Director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

Wm. Thomas Mayo is an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and Professor of Law in the SMU Dedman Law School and author of "Using the Humanities to Explore Professionalism in Medical and Law Schools," a chapter in the newly released book Ethics at the Heart of Higher Education. Rita Kirk, an editor and author of the book, serves as the William F. May Endowed Director of SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.