Losing Our Dignity

How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality

By: Charles C. Camosy

Narrated by: Charles C. Camosy

Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

There is perhaps no more important value than fundamental human equality. And yet, despite large percentages of people affirming the value, the resources available to explain and defend the basis for such equality are few and far between. In his newest book, Charles Camosy provides a thoughtful defense of human dignity.

Telling personal stories like those of Jahi McMath, Terri Schiavo, and Alfie Evans, Camosy, a noted bioethicist and theologian, uses an engaging style to show how the influence of secularized medicine is undermining fundamental human equality in the broader culture. And in a disturbing final chapter, Camosy sounds the alarm about the next population to fall if we stay on our current trajectory: dozens of millions of human beings with dementia.

Heeding this alarm, Camosy argues, means doing two things. First, making urgent and genuine attempts to dialogue with a secularized culture which cannot see how it is undermining one of its most foundational values. Second, religious communities which hold the Imago Dei sacred must mobilize their existing institutions (and create new ones) to care for a new set of human beings our throwaway culture may deem nonpersons.

©2021 New City Press (P)2021 New City Press

Well written book that is also very-well read.

Review of narration: If Charles Camosy ever gets tired of doing what he does for a living - and at which he is very good - he could have a second career in book narration! With a voice for radio, and a cadence that lets you feel like you are hearing, and involved in, the story [rather than "being read to"], Camosy manages to convey his arguments and points with the proper emphasis and nuance so that the listener is easily able to follow every chapter and sub-chapter, even when there are complexities and multiple subjects and references. There is a lot of information in this book, and some of the topics have a density to them that require careful attention. Camosy's narration of his own work makes it easy, however. You may find yourself rewinding, but it won't be because you got lost or couldn't follow the argument; it will be just to re-listen to some of the jaw dropping statements of the interlocutors of his work.

Review of book itself: We are not disposable - we have dignity and worth. Secularized medicine says otherwise. In Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality, Charles Camosy plows headfirst into the line of scrimmage that is modern - and secularized - medicine, and its concomitant framework of bioethics, and advances the ball up the field. With strength of scholarship and gift of articulating and writing a coherent and cogent argument, Camosy lays out the indisputable theological foundations of medicine and an ethic of care; demonstrates how secularization of medicine and ethics has destroyed its own guiding principles; and then deconstructs the value system that has arisen in place of those principles. Proverbial and somewhat prophetic, Camosy has long been engaged with the broader Consistent Life Ethic and attention to a throwaway culture. Using relevant and still-shocking case studies, this latest endeavor of his continues his sounding of the cultural alarm for the downward trends in respect for human dignity, respect for human life, and respect for fundamental human equality. It is an essential read (or listen!) for everyone, for we all have a stake in how the secularization of medicine will affect the care of our loved ones, and of ourselves. Further, it is an essential resource for Catholics, and others of good will, so as to advocate on behalf of the [growing] number of categories of people whom modern society deems disposable.

Logical, Eye-opening Analysis

Camosy builds in each chapter, supplements with compelling and heartbreaking case studies, and recommends short, medium, and long term solutions to the problems the increased secularization of medicine have caused in our healthcare system. By accepting secularism as the air, we have lost our sense of what truly comprises a human being, with God-given dignity and worth. Camosy details how we got here, the problems it has caused, and how we might pull ourselves out of this free-fall and truly serve the whole person through our medical systems. The book is eye-opening, incisive, and practical.

Interesting Topic - well researched

The passion Charles has is awesome, and it was an eye-opening book. I would recommend this book to all my friends and family.