Death and Life in America

Family physician Raymond Downing offers a bold critique of western medicine and sees medical care as one of the fallen "principalities and powers" in need of redemption. But Downing's hope lies beyond biomedicine--in biblical healing, especially the healing miracles of Jesus. In conversation with the Bible, Ivan Illich, William Strongfellow, Susan Sontag, and others, Downing revisits how Westerners approach medicine. He sees suffering and healing as essentially spiritual experiences at the roots of death and life.