What can we learn from the history of euthanasia?

What was the view of suicide in euthanasia in the ancient world of the Bible

and how did the early church introduce a new ethic of life into that context?

How did the modern euthanasia movement begin and

what was a rationale for permitting it? And how did the Nazi experience of

euthanasia affect that movement?

I mention these questions and more with our good friend and eminent historian,

now Professor Emeritus at Cal State Sanislaus, Dr. Richard Weichert, around his new book entitled

Unnatural Death, Medicine's Descent, From Healing to Killing. I'm your host Scott Ray and I'm your co-host

Sean McDow. This is Think Biblically from Talbot School of Theology

at Biola University. Richard, you've been a guest with us several times, so delighted to have you back, particularly around this terrific new book.

Yeah, it's wonderful to be with you.

Now, your academic background, I find incredibly interesting.

Tell our listeners a little bit about your area of specialty

as a historian and why you've devoted so much

of your academic career to this particular area. Well, I first got interested in modern European intellectual history in the late 1970s

when I was an undergraduate because I was reading a lot of works by Francis Schaefer, the

great Christian apologist to the middle of the 20th century,

and he had a profound impact on my thought and got me interested in these issues because

he showed that not only were they providing answers,

or at least what they thought were answers, to questions and trying to replace Christianity,

but that ultimately those were not satisfying answers.

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