Richard Weikart: Promoting Life in a Culture of Death
The urge to help people kill themselves has intensified in recent decades, even to the point of pushing the reluctant towards death. How did we reach this place? On this ID The Future, historian and author Dr. Richard Weikart joins veteran radio and podcast host Dr. Jerry Newcombe to discuss how the evolutionary ethic has undermined the value of human life, the topic of his latest book, Unnatural Death: Medicine’s Descent From Healing to Killing.
In his book, Dr. Weikart traces the complex and fascinating history of ideas, attitudes, and legal wranglings surrounding assisted suicide and euthanasia stretching from Socrates to Peter Singer and beyond. Along the way Weikart shows diverse thinkers wrestling with the tension between the unalienable preciousness of human life and the longing to escape suffering and despair. As the author shows, the Judeo-Christian tradition encouraged a culture of life, but the secular Enlightenment and Darwinian materialism have tugged us in a different direction.
We’re grateful to Jerry Newcombe for permission to share this conversation. Learn more about Dr. Newcombe’s work at ProvidenceForum.org.
Dig Deeper
- Listen to Dr. Weikart read an exclusive excerpt from his book Unnatural Death.
- Enjoy our previous interview with Dr. Weikart exploring the arguments of Unnatural Death: