Culture of Death: The Age of a Do Harma Medicine, Paperback

When his teenage son Christopher, brain-damaged in an auto accident, developed a 105-degree fever following weeks of unconsciousness, John Campbell asked the attending physician for help. The doctor refused. Why bother? The boy's life was effectively over. Campbell refused to accept this verdict. He demanded treatment and threatened legal action. The doctor finally relented. With treatment, Christopher's temperature--which had eventually reached 107.6 degrees--subsided almost immediately. Soon afterward the boy regained consciousness and was learning to walk again.

This story is one of many Wesley J. Smith recounts in his award-winning classic critique of the modern bioethics movement, Culture of Death. In this newly updated edition, Smith chronicles how the threats to the equality of human life have accelerated in recent years, from the proliferation of euthanasia and the Brittany Maynard assisted suicide firestorm, to the potential for "death panels" posed by Obamacare and the explosive Terri Schiavo controversy.

Culture of Death reveals how more and more doctors have withdrawn from the Hippocratic Oath and how "bioethicists" influence policy by posing questions such as whether organs may be harvested from the terminally ill and disabled. This is a passionate yet coolly reasoned book about the current crisis in medical ethics by an author who has made "the new thanatology" his consuming interest.

About the Author:

Lawyer and award-winning author, Wesley J. Smith, is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute s Center on Human Exceptionalism. He is also a consultant to the Patients Rights Council.
In May 2004, because of his work in bioethics, Smith was named one of the nation s premier expert thinkers in bioengineering by the National Journal. In 2008, the Human Life Foundation named him a Great Defender of Life for his work against assisted suicide and euthanasia, work for which he also received the Legatus Cardinal John J. O'Connor Award for 2014.
Smith left the full time practice of law in 1985 to pursue a career in writing and public advocacy. He is the author or coauthor of thirteen books. His Human Exceptionalism blog, hosted by "National Review Online," is one of the premier blogs dealing with human life and dignity.
Smith s book "Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide and the New Duty to Die," a broad-based criticism of the assisted suicide/euthanasia movement has become a classic in anti-euthanasia advocacy and is now in its third edition, published by Encounter Books in 2006. Smith s "Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America," a warning about the dangers of the modern bioethics movement, was named one of the Ten Outstanding Books of the Year and Best Health Book of the Year for 2001 (Independent Publisher Book Awards).
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