"The culture of death has tightened its grip during the COVID-19 pandemic. Combining a comprehensive overview of the personalist foundations of end-of-life ethics with magisterial references, Fr. Weimann equips readers to advance the culture of life, guiding them through assessments about ordinary and extraordinary treatments as well as the pitfalls of euthanasia and assisted suicide. He also offers insightful contributions to more recent controversies surrounding brain death, organ donation, and alkaline hydrolysis." —JOHN A. DI CAMILLO, The National Catholic Bioethics Center
“Christianity is a message of hope. It shows the path that does not end with death, but leads to eternal life. Therefore, the right way of dealing with dying and death is crucial. In view of the challenges involved, Prof. Ralph Weimann’s book offers a fundamental ethical and moral orientation of the greatest importance for Catholics, but also with an ecumenical dimension. This scientifically thorough but accessible book deserves wide distribution.” —CARDINAL KURT KOCH, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
“Today, death and dying are increasingly seen as technological problems concerning utility, rather than moral issues regarding meaning. As with our attitude toward living, so our attitude toward dying will largely depend on whether we understand ourselves as transient products of blind evolution or as creatures of a wise and loving Creator having an eternal destiny. In his highly recommendable volume, Weimann advocates the latter, providing a panoramic vision of current end-of-life issues in the broader context of what it means to be a human person from a Catholic perspective.” —STEPHAN KAMPOWSKI, Pontifical Theological John Paul II Institute, Rome
“In the context of a culture under the lash of economic, media, and post-modern pressures, this timely, well-researched, and lucidly argued book poses questions about end-of-life care sure to benefit Christians, bioethics experts, and people generally. Fr. Weimann focuses on modern presuppositions about the human person which have led us astray from authentic Christian ethics. Forms of euthanasia, assisted suicide, and therapeutic obstinacy are distinguished from authentic principles of Catholic teaching. A stimulating critique of brain death criteria, organ transplants, and burial and alternatives to it, further enhances this major work.” —FR. GEORGE J. WOODALL, Emeritus Lecturer in Moral Theology, Regina Apostolorum, Rome
“Father Weimann offers Catholics a substantial and mostly non-technical study of the issues surrounding euthanasia (‘making a good end’) and suicide—whether self-inflicted or assisted—and usually enacted as a means of securing the ‘dignity’ of the human person and respecting his ‘quality of life.’ Largely adapted from the teachings of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, it provides a challenging introduction to an important part of the culture-war between the partisans of the ‘Culture of Life’ preached normally (but not always) by the Catholic Church and the ‘Culture of Death’ preferred by abortion-mongers and those eager to save money and trouble by eliminating the elderly who, as they see it, are now ‘past their shelf-life.’” —JOHN RIST, Emeritus Professor of Classics and Philosophy, University of Toronto
