A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller. A Review

Walter M. Miller takes a close look at one of our times most discussed and debated moral issues, that of euthanasia. Miller opposes euthanasia. However, he does not ignore the arguments for it. Indeed, it is easy to sympathise with the young women and her baby who in great pain are dying of radiation poisoning. “Radiation sickness. Flash burns. The women has a broken hip. The father’s dead. The fillings in the women’s teeth are radioactive. The child almost glows in the dark…Nausea, anemia, rotten follicles. Blind in one eye. The child cries constantly because of the burns.” It would be so easy to say ‘go to the clinic, let the pain come to an end’, and Miller acknowledges this.

This is however far from Miller’s last word on the matter. He does not hold back in writing a wonderfully convincing attack on euthanasia. Miller uses the character of the abbot as a great mouthpiece on the issue. The abbot ‘Fr. Zerchi’ is almost a St. Peter type of character,

Some topics in this essay:
Indeed Miller, Walter Miller, St Leibowitz, Br Francis’, Cors Zerchi, Arkoas Zerich, Heaven Pain, God Child, St Peter, Satan’ It’s, st leibowitz, nuclear war, euthanasia miller, god pleased, faith hope, history abbey, indeed miller, endure suffering, walter miller,