At the 2013 Life and Learning Conference in San Francisco, William Hurlbut, Ph.D., gave a memorable plenary talk called ““Stem Cells, Eggs and Embryos: the Controversy Continues.” A friend recently told me about a talk that Dr. Hurlbut gave called “Biotechnology & The Spirituality of Saint Francis.” Here is a link to the audio of the talk. In the talk Hurlbut contrasts our biotechnological culture and its values of avoiding pain and maximizing pleasure with the self-sacrificing “romance” of St. Francis’s spirituality.