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Christopher O. Tollefsen

Christopher Tollefsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. His most recent book, with Farr Curlin, is The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession. In 2024-25 he is a Visiting Fellow with the deNicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.

Public Discourse

Science and the Embryo

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Senator Rubio was on solid ground in saying science has settled the question of when a human being's life begins. Science does not need to wait on philosophy’s pronouncements to investigate what the human embryo is and when its life begins.
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Intention, Choice, and the Right to Life: A Response to Nigel Biggar

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“Intention” and “choice” are complex concepts, but we must achieve clarity about them in order to protect human life and upright willing, as we should never choose to damage or destroy human life by intentionally killing a person.
Public Discourse

In Defense of the Innocent

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Although Nigel Biggar’s new book on just war has many strengths, the author gets himself into a moral muddle over the question whether the deaths of innocent non-combatants can be deliberately chosen in war.
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Piety, Justice, and Animals: A Response to Charles Camosy

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Both natural law thought and the Catechism agree: animals are not part of the same justice community as human beings, because they do not possess the dignity that comes from existing as a rational being.
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Abortion: A Public Issue

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Contrary to the judgment of the Supreme Court, abortion is not a private issue. It snuffs out the existence of a member of the human community—a person like us with a radical capacity for reason and freedom.
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Our Obligations to Animals

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Because animals are not truly our equals, advocating that we should treat them as such weakens the pro-life cause. But animals are meant to be part of our households, and the way we treat them should express beauty and virtue, not decay, pride, and domination.
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What Our Obligations to Other Animals Are Not

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Charles Camosy’s new book argues that we should treat animals with the same Christian justice that underlies our treatment of other people. But human beings and other animals are not fundamentally equal in the way that all human beings are, as free and rational beings created in the image of God.
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Presidential Lies and Political Ownership

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When President Obama lied about the Affordable Care Act, he substituted his own self-governance and self-constitution for that of the American people.
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Charity with a Conscience

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We all have a moral obligation to use our surplus wealth to help those in need, but we should do so in a way that is effective, fair, and in accordance with our own vocations.
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Allison Benedikt’s Immodest Proposal

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A rant against private schools should teach all of us something about the purposes of education, and what responsible parents should seek for their children.
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Gosnell, Law, and Modest First Steps

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The Gosnell case shows us that a society’s laws teach, and if they teach a lesson of injustice they will corrupt its people over time. Indeed, contemporary abortion jurisprudence undermines the very notion of natural rights and constitutional government.
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Are We Guilty for Our Religious Belief?

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Is religious belief wrong, and are religious believers morally culpable for their false beliefs?
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Rape, Conception, and God: Why Mourdock Was Right

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Richard Mourdock’s comment didn’t imply that God wills rape; instead, it reminds us that God wills a great good in the coming-to-be of any human life, regardless of the evil circumstances surrounding its conception.
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Lies and God

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Lying is always wrong because it always compromises the love of truth that we need to know and love God better.
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Lies and Truth

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Insofar as our lives are governed by reason, we cannot live without truth and a love for it.
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The Conflict Really Lies within New Atheism

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In his new book "Where the Conflict Really Lies," Alvin Plantinga levels a devastating critique against the “new atheism” espoused by thinkers such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
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Mandates and Bad Law

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Were the central task of government to be seen as that of aiding citizens in their own self-constitution, oriented towards real human goods including the good of religion, the HHS mandate would be seen for the unjust imposition it is.
Public Discourse

Natural Causes, Divine Commands, and Human Wellbeing

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The precepts of the natural law are obligatory not because they are commanded, but because they are necessary for our well-being. God’s revelation of these precepts is better understood as a divine reminding and authoritative inviting.
Public Discourse

No Intentional Killing of the Innocent: A Response to Miscamble and O’Brien

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The absolute prohibition of intrinsically evil acts is the limit on one’s positive obligations.
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The Most Controversial Decision: Challenging Pro-Life Witness

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The tradition of common morality does not permit us to excuse the atomic bomb as a “necessary” evil.
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Moral Absolutes and the Moral Life

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Moral absolutes are not “mere” restrictions on our actions. Nor should they be suspended even when upholding them might bring about grave consequences. They are essential for protecting human wellbeing.
Public Discourse

Punishment: Political, Not Metaphysical

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The presumptive starting point in the natural law and, more specifically, Christian tradition is one of absolute opposition to intentional killing of beings created in the image of God, for which exceptions must be earned; but the traditional justifications for such exceptions fail.
Public Discourse

Capital Punishment, Dignity, and Authority: A Response to Ed Feser

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Nothing that a man does can change his nature as man, and so, considered in himself, it will always remain wrong to kill him. This should be the final judgment of practical reason when brought to bear on the question of capital punishment.
Public Discourse

Capital Punishment, Sanctity of Life, and Human Dignity

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Intentional killing is always wrong, and support of capital punishment often stems from a misunderstanding of the nature of human dignity.
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