Culture of Death

Culture of Death

Author: Wesley J. Smith

Publisher: Encounter Books

Published: 2016-05-17

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1594038562

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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 Culture of Death reveals how more and more doctors have withdrawn from the Hippocratic Oath and how “bioethicists” influence policy by posing questions such as whether organs may be harvested from the terminally ill and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.


Digital Death

Digital Death

Author: Christopher M. Moreman

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2014-10-20

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1440831335

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This fascinating work explores the meaning of death in the digital age, showing readers the new ways digital technology allows humans to approach, prepare for, and handle their ultimate destiny. With DeadSocialTM one can create messages to be published to social networks after death. Facebook's "If I Die" enables users to create a video or text message for posthumous publication. Twitter _LIVESON accounts will keep tweeting even after the user is gone. There is no doubt that the digital age has radically changed options related to death, dying, grieving, and remembering, allowing people to say goodbye in their own time and their own unique way. Drawing from a range of academic perspectives, this book is the only serious study to focus on the ways in which death, dying, and memorialization appear in and are influenced by digital technology. The work investigates phenomena, devices, and audiences as they affect mortality, remembrances, grieving, posthumous existence, and afterlife experience. It examines the markets to which the providers of such services are responding, and it analyzes the degree to which digital media is changing views and expectations related to death. Ultimately, the contributors seek to answer an even more important question: how digital existences affect both real-world perceptions of life's end and the way in which lives are actually lived.


A Commonsense Book of Death

A Commonsense Book of Death

Author: Edwin S. Shneidman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780742563315

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A distinguished lifelong thanatologist--expert on death--reviews his life, a previous prize-winning book of thirty five years ago, and his own impending death in this extraordinary volume of life's most ubiquitous event.


The Golden Age of Death

The Golden Age of Death

Author: Amber Benson

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2013-02-26

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0425256154

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Meet Amber Benson's "authentically original creation" (Locus)... My name is Calliope Reaper-Jones (Callie to my friends). I’m Death’s Daughter and—as of very recently—the (reluctant) head of my father’s company, Death, Inc. I was gradually learning how to be a businesswoman. Had the power suits and shoes down, though the day to day was slow going. Then I was blindsided by Enemies Unknown and sent off to I-don’t-know-where. Not a good thing. Now not only must my friends and family be frantic, but without a CEO, Death, Inc., can’t function. With the newly deceased left free to roam the Earth, it’s the zombie apocalypse come true. I’ve got to get back—for my sake and the sake of, oh, all humanity…


Amusing Ourselves to Death

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author: Neil Postman

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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Examines the effects of television culture on how we conduct our public affairs and how "entertainment values" corrupt the way we think.


The Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America (Large Print 16pt)

The Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America (Large Print 16pt)

Author: Wesley J. Smith

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com

Published: 2010-10-06

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 145877841X

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When his teenaged son Christopher, brain-damaged in an auto accident, developed a 106-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 subsided almost immediately. Soon afterwards he regained consciousness and today he is learning to walk again. This story is one of many Wesley Smith recounts in his groundbreaking new book, The Culture of Death. Smith believes that American medicine ''is changing from a system based on the sanctity of human life into a starkly utilitarian model in which the medically defenseless are seen as having not just a 'right' but a 'duty' to die.'' Going behind the current scenes of our health care system, he shows how doctors withdraw desired care based on Futile Care Theory rather than provide it as required by the Hippocratic Oath. And how ''bioethicists'' influence policy by considering 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.


The Age of Spectacular Death

The Age of Spectacular Death

Author: Michael Hviid Jacobsen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-09-08

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 1000171973

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This book explores death in contemporary society – or more precisely, in the ‘spectacular age’ – by moving beyond classic studies of death that emphasised the importance of the death taboo and death denial to examine how we now ‘do’ death. Unfolding the notion of ‘spectacular death’ as characteristic of our modern approach to death and dying, it considers the new mediation or mediatisation of death and dying; the commercialisation of death as a ‘marketable commodity’ used to sell products, advance artistic expression or provoke curiosity; the re-ritualisation of death and the growth of new ways of finding meaning through commemorating the dead; the revolution of palliative care; and the specialisation surrounding death, particularly in relation to scholarship. Presenting a range of case studies that shed light on this new understanding of death in contemporary culture, The Age of Spectacular Death will appeal to scholars of sociology, cultural and media studies, psychology and anthropology with interests in death and dying.


With the End in Mind

With the End in Mind

Author: Kathryn Mannix

Publisher: Little, Brown Spark

Published: 2018-01-16

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 031650453X

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For readers of Atul Gawande and Paul Kalanithi, a palliative care doctor's breathtaking stories from 30 years spent caring for the dying. Modern medical technology is allowing us to live longer and fuller lives than ever before. And for the most part, that is good news. But with changes in the way we understand medicine come changes in the way we understand death. Once a familiar, peaceful, and gentle -- if sorrowful -- transition, death has come to be something from which we shield our eyes, as we prefer to fight desperately against it rather than accept its inevitability. Dr. Kathryn Mannix has studied and practiced palliative care for thirty years. In With the End in Mind , she shares beautifully crafted stories from a lifetime of caring for the dying, and makes a compelling case for the therapeutic power of approaching death not with trepidation, but with openness, clarity, and understanding. Weaving the details of her own experiences as a caregiver through stories of her patients, their families, and their distinctive lives, Dr. Mannix reacquaints us with the universal, but deeply personal, process of dying. With insightful meditations on life, death, and the space between them, With the End in Mind describes the possibility of meeting death gently, with forethought and preparation, and shows the unexpected beauty, dignity, and profound humanity of life coming to an end.


Age of Legend

Age of Legend

Author: Michael J. Sullivan

Publisher: Legends of the First Empire

Published: 2023-01-17

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781943363445

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Each culture has its own myths and legends, but only one is shared, and it is feared by all. With Age of Myth, Age of Swords, and Age of War, fantasy master Michael J. Sullivan riveted readers with a tale of unlikely heroes locked in a desperate battle to save mankind. After years of warfare, humanity has gained the upper hand and has pushed the Fhrey to the edge of their homeland, but no farther. Now comes the pivotal moment. Persephone's plan to use the stalemate to seek peace is destroyed by an unexpected betrayal that threatens to hand victory to the Fhrey and leaves a dear friend in peril. Humanity's only hope lies in the legend of a witch, a forgotten song, and a simple garden door.