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The Comparison Project hosts interfaith dialogue on death and dying

The Comparison Project will present its fifth event in a yearlong series on death and dying. A community interfaith dialogue will feature scholars and medical professionals from four different religious traditions. The panel will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, at Dunn’s Chapel at Iles Funeral Homes, 2121 Grand Ave.

Norma Hirsch, assistant professor of osteopathic medicine at Des Moines University, will moderate. Panelists include Sayeed Hussain, a pediatrician at West Des Moines Children’s Clinic, Pramod Mahajan, associate professor of pharmacology at Drake University, You Bin, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar of Religion from Minzu University in China, and Josephy Moravec, professor of theology and philosophy at Mercy College.

Among other questions, the panel seeks to explore what happens after death and what postmortem rituals relatives should practice from the perspective of representatives from Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and Chinese religions. The panelists will focus particularly on the tensions between traditional theologies and rituals of death, and the way in which death has increasingly become the domain of medicine and law.

The Comparison Project will be hosting another Community Interfaith Dialogue at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, along with a Calvin Community Panel on healthy aging and brain wellness at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26.

The Comparison Project is supported by the Drake University Center for the Humanities, Humanities Iowa, the Medbury Fund, The Drake University Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship, the Des Moines Area Religious Council, Cultivating Compassion: The Dr. Richard Deming Foundation. Iles Funeral Homes is a special series sponsor for the series on death and dying.