About Matthew Eppinette
Matthew Eppinette is Interim Director of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity (CBHD) at Trinity International University. Dr. Eppinette has a decade and a half of experience in the field of bioethics, including serving CBHD previously, from 2002-2007.
He holds a PhD in Theology with concentrations in Christian Ethics and Theology & Culture from the Center for Advanced Theological Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, where he also earned an MA in Theology. He is a 2004 graduate of the MA Bioethics program at Trinity International University, and he has an MBA with concentrations in Quantitative Analysis and Information Systems from Louisiana Tech University. His undergraduate degree is in Business Management and Administration from Louisiana State University Shreveport.
As an MBA student, Matthew worked on research in the areas of diffusion of innovation and expert systems. He then worked in information technology in the wholesale sporting goods and pharmaceutical industries before returning to graduate school to study bioethics.
In his first tenure at CBHD, he served in a variety of capacities including Director of Research & Analysis and Assistant Director. From CBHD, he joined Americans United for Life as Director of Communications. When he moved to California to attend Fuller, Matthew joined the Center for Bioethics and Culture (CBC) where he served as New Media Manager and Executive Director from 2009-2018.
During his time at the CBC, he co-wrote and co-produced six documentary films addressing bioethics issues. Three of the films were Official Film Festival Selections, and one was awarded Best Documentary at the California Independent Film Festival.
Dr. Eppinette’s current research interests include transhumanism, Alasdair MacIntyre’s ethics and epistemology, and the intersection of fiction, film, and other areas of culture, particularly popular culture, that raise or address bioethics issues.
Matthew and his wife Ginger currently reside in suburban Chicago.
About 2BHuman
I have started a number of blogs over the years, some exploring film, some exploring bioethics, and some simply collecting random things that I may want to reference later. I’ve finally decided to aggregate all of that information at 2BHuman because for me, part of what it means to be human is to learn and grow and remember. Think of 2BHuman as an opportunity to look over my shoulder.
About Hollywood Bioethics
Hollywood Bioethics is a one to eight-week teaching series exploring the nexus of theology, bioethics, and popular culture—primarily but not exclusively in film. In it I present a number of bioethics issues, explain what they are, demonstrate their portrayal in popular culture, and introduce a biblical / theological framework for exploring them.
As a launching point, consider the fact that enduring stories generally share a three-act structure: introduction, complication, resolution. Similarly, the “story” of bioethics can be told in three acts: taking life (abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia), making life (reproductive technologies, stem cell research, cloning), and faking life (neuroethics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, transhumanism).
Please Note: The views I express here and in my other speaking and writing are my own and do not necessarily those of any organization with which I am affiliated.