BIOETHICAL ISSUES
Understanding and responding to the
culture of death
By John R Ling
DayOne. 312 pages. £10.00
ISBN 978 1 846 254 277
John Ling’s book sets out to instruct ‘ordinary’ Christians – not academics or scientists – in the range and depth of bioethical issues with which society grapples.
It takes on everything from abortion to euthanasia (via in-vitro fertilisation, surroga-cy, human embryo experimentation, cloning, stem cell technologies, genetic engineering, screening for genetic disabilities, gene therapy and infanticide), putting them in the context of biblical teaching. He does so not merely to educate, but to spur us to stand up for an informed, Bible-based alternative to our prevailing culture, where human life is devalued and so casually destroyed – the ‘culture of death’ of the subtitle. He proposes that the appalling scale of the deliberate, legally-sanctioned ending of human life is in part a result of the silence and inaction of Christians.