Devan Stahl, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Bioethics and Religion Baylor University
Media
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Emerging Scholar Award
2018
Education
Saint Louis University
Ph.D.
Health Care Ethics
2015
Vanderbilt Divinity School
M.Div.
Divinity
2010
University of Virginia,
B.A.
Religion/Religious Studies
2007
Affiliations
- American Academy of Religion
- American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
Media Appearances
Disability and Chronic Illness: A Significant Dialogue with Jens Zimmerman and Devan Stahl
Houston Centre for Humanity and the Common Good online
2026-02-18
Chronic illness and disability can be transformative experiences within the human lifespan. Yet, these experiences can also reveal taken-for-granted norms concerning what it means to be human: What does it mean to have a “normal” or “healthy” body? What do we need to flourish? What is most essential about us? Who are we in relation to others? Such questions contain ontological (what is the nature of being?) and ethical (what should we do?) dimensions. In their own ways, both medicine and theology provide answers to these questions through systems of belief and practice.
Mind and Spirit: Ethical Foundations in Scientific Research
Baylor Connections online
2025-12-02
How do science and theology intersect to promote human flourishing? Baylor researchers Sarah Schnitker and Devan Stahl share how research collaborations bridge psychology, ethics, and faith to address real-world challenges. They discuss the origins of their partnership, a new collaborative human thriving research center at Baylor, and a project that equips scholars to integrate empirical research with theological inquiry.
#973 – Disability, Theology, and the Church: Dr. Devan Stahl
Theology in the Raw Podcast online
2025-05-19
Dr. Devan Stahl is Assistant Professor of Religion at Baylor University. She holds an MDiv from Vanderbilt Divinity School and a Ph.D. from St. Louis University. She previously was an Assistant Professor of Clinical Ethics at Michigan State University and has experience teaching bioethics and medical humanities to undergraduates, medical students and residents, nursing students, and veterinary students. She has also worked as a clinical ethicist in tertiary hospitals and has trained as a hospital chaplain. Devin’s experience with MS has led her to become a leading voice in the conversation about a Theology of Disability, which is the topic of our conversation.
How students can use college for spiritual growth
Baylor Lariat online
2025-03-20
Dr. Devan Stahl, associate professor of bioethics and religion, gives insight into how students who choose to participate in faith can incorporate intellectual reasoning with theology. Stahl said that every inquiry that students have is directly correlated with God.
“Our faith in God is the starting point rather than the end point of our knowledge,” Stahl said. “We use our reason to illuminate our faith. And because God created everything, there is no academic discipline that cannot help us to better understand God.”
Ethicists Collaborate with Palliative Care Team
Medical Ethics Advisor Newsletter online
2024-10-01
“In my experience, palliative care and clinical ethics share much in common. Both are interested in values-related questions,” says Devan Stahl, PhD, HEC-C, associate professor of bioethics and religion at Baylor University and palliative care fellowship faculty at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center-Hillcrest.
Beyond Limitations: Disability and Quality of Life
EthicsLab Podcast online
2023-04-18
In this all new in-depth episode of EthicsLab, with our guests we explore how the concept of quality of life is used in medical decision making and shed light on the challenges this brings, especially to those in the disability community. We offer several solutions to how these challenges can be overcome.
An Era of Soft Eugenics? Devan Stahl on Disability's Challenge to Theology
Currents in Religion Podcast online
2022-12-09
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Devan Stahl about disability, eugenics, metaphysics, and how theology can help navigate the ethics of medicine. The subject of our book is Devan's new book Disability's Challenge to Theology (University of Notre Dame Press).
S1.E5: Theology & Disability
Theology & Podcast online
2022-01-14
This episode invites us to be disrupted in our ideas of ourselves as human beings and as the church, and to be open to the Spirit’s work and gifts among all of us. In this episode Jeff and Emily are joined by Dr. Brian Brock and Dr. Devan Stahl to help us begin to understand disability. We also talk about how medicine and technology shape the ways we see the world and make decisions, as well as how the church can do better when it comes to speaking about and welcoming those with disabilities.
'Christians and the Vaccine' project: Combating ethical qualms of evangelical communities
NBC News online
2021-04-23
Devan Stahl, an assistant professor of religion at Baylor University, agreed, saying it was "a valiant effort."
"He is trying to equip pastors to talk to their congregations with information and talking points," Stahl said. "That makes sense."
Meet Baylor’s nationally recognized expert on bioethics
Baylor Proud online
2021-03-08
Dr. Devan Stahl’s call to bioethics began with her own experience as a patient. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a young woman, she recognized aspects of the healthcare system that could be improved — most notably, the ways doctors and decision-makers communicated with (and considered) people with disabilities.
Articles
Disability, Quality of Life, and Vitalism in End-of-Life Care
HEC Forum2025
This article draws upon the work of disability bioethicists to offer additional reflections on how and why conflicts sometimes emerge between the surrogates of disabled patients and health care practitioners. The Best Interest Values (BIV) system described by Fiester can lead to, or coincide with, ableist attitudes that endanger the lives and dignity of disabled people. At the same time, her competing hierarchies could do a better job distinguishing quality of life concerns from vitalism, the latter of which does not well represent many disability advocates’ concerns regarding healthcare systems. The article concludes by arguing that acquiescing to surrogate demands and legal requirements to prolong the lives of disabled patients can lead to inhumane treatment plans that ought to be resisted by health care practitioners.
A novel tool to assess the capacity of people with dementia to designate a surrogate
The Gerontologist2025
Background and Objectives
As their cognitive function declines, people with dementia often lose decision-making capacity (DMC) for choosing certain medical treatments, but some retain the capacity to designate a surrogate (CDS) decision maker. There is currently no tool for assessing the CDS. The purpose of this study is to validate a novel capacity assessment tool for evaluating CDS for people with a clinical diagnosis of dementia.
“A Gospel Choir and an Elevator”: The One Wishes of Disabled Christians
Journal of Disability & Religion2025
Many people with disabilities are active members of local churches, but few researchers have explored what disabled congregants desire for their churches. This article aims to answer the question, what is the one wish disabled Christians have for the Church? Researchers analyzed responses to the “one wish” question posed in interviews with thirty-seven disabled Christians as part of a previous qualitative study, using empirical and theological approaches. We used thematic analysis to explore how their responses aligned with or revealed gaps in disability theological analysis. Three salient themes emerged from the interviews: (1) two-way access, (2) growth in church space and membership, and (3) unity in discipleship. These findings have implications for theologians and church leaders working to ensure faith communities reflect the inclusive and liberating message of the gospel.
Scans and Prints
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine2024
This essay reflects on occasions when images of the author’s body stirred wonder and challenged the author’s understanding of her relationship to her body. Wonder is not a sentimental or romantic feeling, but an intermingling of both admiration and fear. Wonder is perhaps closest to awe, which has connotations of both reverence and terror. Wonder holds together both the negative and positive emotions that awe once elicited. Finding wonder in your own body, therefore, can be both a fearful and exhilarating experience, one that demands a kind of reconstitution of the self, since the body that was once taken for granted has now become alien.
AI and Human Dignity Within Health Care: A Christian Bioethical Assessment
The Review of Faith & International Affairs2025
This paper explores the ethical implications of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into clinical healthcare from a Christian bioethical perspective. It surveys current applications of AI in various domains, highlighting the potential benefits and emerging ethical challenges. While AI can enhance medical accuracy and efficiency, it must not replace the human dignity inherent in caregiving. Drawing on mainline Protestant ethics, the paper proposes principles emphasizing the promotion of human flourishing, relationality, care for the vulnerable, and the common good. It calls for transparent, inclusive, and just AI development and use, regulated independently to uphold human dignity amid technological advancement in healthcare.
Misuses of “quality of life” judgments in end-of-life care
Chest2023
Physicians’ misperceptions about their disabled patients’ quality of life (QoL) can influence their decision to offer certain medical treatments. There are at least three domains in which misconceptions about a disabled QoL might result in unequal care for disabled patients and could even lead to a patient’s untimely death:(1) futility declarations,(2) recommendations for comfort care,(3) and the distribution of scarce resources. This article argues that medical futility decisions should not be based on a physician’s QoL judgments, that physicians should not steer disabled patients into comfort care when they have treatable illnesses, and that disability alone should never be a reason to deprioritize a patient for scarce medical resources. Rather than a clinical judgment, QoL judgments made on behalf of another should incorporate the patient’s known goals, values, and preferences.
