C.L. Gray

Our world has changed. Even now, an unseen force grinds away, reshaping the nation we know and love. But reshaping her into what? This is the question.

  • In the end, the State secured the power to ration healthcare in order to control its financial risk, even if that meant replacing a patient’s chance to live with the choice of how to die. p. 12

  • With this action the Supreme Court stripped medicine of its fixed point of reference. Patients were no longer guaranteed their wellbeing would remain at the center of American medicine. p. 54

  • Once the heart of medicine has changed, how long will it be before compassion dries up? When that happens, how long before compassion is replaced by the contempt of Nietzsche? p. 58

  • The postmodern world knows no bounds as the hands of time reshape the unthinkable into the thinkable. p. 282

  • Government compassion sounds so noble. But in the end, whoever pays holds the power to choose… and the government cannot provide everything for everyone. p. 13

  • Our Founding Fathers believed government derived it just power from the consent of the governed. It is here we find hope, for it is here that We the People find a Truth stronger than the political power of Washington. p. 8

  • ... But what happens to the foundations of freedom when postmodern thought destroys the concept of a “Fixed Truth?” When the basis of true liberty is destroyed, a new kind of freedom emerges that knows no bounds.
    p. 19

  • … In each case, the State stepped in to “do good” for the majority of its citizens. But in each case, the State sacrificed individual liberty on the altar of the “social good” with chilling consistency. p.28

  • The concept of a fixed point of reference insured that medicine would always serve the patient, and government would always serve the citizen. Neither the physician nor the government could strip individuals of their unalienable rights. p. 39

  • This is the fundamental Law of Liberty: Whoever controls the concept of Truth controls power. If American loses her concept of a fixed point of reference, she will assuredly lose her most treasured possession, liberty itself. p. 39

     

  • When faced with uncertainties in medical ethics, each person must look inward to consult his or her personal moral compass as a guide—to find where the needle of their ethical compass points. p. 45

  • Driven by unbridled expectation, America is rapidly approaching a time when treatment and litigation costs will exceed available resources. When this happens, the ability to maintain Hippocratic ideals becomes untenable. p. 49

     

"Dr. Gray's remarkable book, The Battle for America's Soul, lays out the meaning and real world importance of a worldview in a way I have never encountered. As a surgeon with decades of education and training, I have always looked to the world of science as the source of truth. While Dr. Gray is every bit a scientist, by placing medicine in the broader context of history he explores what it really means to be a Hippocratic physician. As Washington considers fundamentally restructuring the entire American healthcare system, Dr. Gray's timely and thoughtful book is a must read for every American." - Peter Bradshaw, MD - Hickory, NC

   

   

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