{"id":240137,"date":"2021-02-17T07:43:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T13:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=240137"},"modified":"2021-02-16T19:17:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T01:17:02","slug":"book-roe-lethalism-philosophy-poisoning-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/book-roe-lethalism-philosophy-poisoning-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of book on Roe v. Wade says ‘lethalism’ as a philosophy is poisoning society"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An OB-GYN with over 40 years of experience has written a book with the goal of exposing the unstable ground on which the 1973 Roe v. Wade<\/em>\u00a0Supreme Court decision was established \u2014 and his hope is that it will motivate the pro-life movement to innovate its approach to reaching the culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas W. Hilgers, MD<\/a>\u00a0is the founder and director of the <\/span>Pope Paul VI Institute<\/span><\/a> for the Study of Human Reproduction and is the co-developer of the popular and renowned<\/span> Creighton Model Fertility Care<\/span><\/a> system \u2014\u00a0which can be used for natural family planning \u2014 and the pro-life women\u2019s health science<\/span> NaPro Technology<\/span><\/a>. He has written over 190 professional books, book chapters, and research articles, and his book, “<\/span>The Fake and Deceptive Science Behind Roe v. Wade<\/span><\/a>“ was published in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hilgers explained to Live Action News that what drove him to write this book was hearing a senator ask whether Brett Kavanaugh considered <\/span>Roe v. Wade<\/span><\/i> \u201csettled law\u201d during his<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Supreme Court confirmation hearings. \u201cThey always ask this of the new justices, and they all say yes,\u201d Hilgers said. This caused him to wonder: how can <\/span>Roe<\/span><\/i> possibly be \u201csettled law,\u201d when, Hilgers says, \u201cthe science they\u2019re using is so phony\u201d? <\/span><\/p>\n

According to Hilgers, Chief Justice Blackmun \u201csubstitute[d] a theory [of when life begins] which is sort of like substituting the Flat Earth Society[\u2019s theories] for the fact that the earth is round \u2026 [Blackmun] took the theory of a British lawyer, and definitely ignored the dominant science at the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The adoption of “lethalism”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In choosing to cast pregnancy as a disease and sanction abortion as its \u201csolution,\u201d Hilgers suggests the Court \u2014\u00a0and now our society as a whole \u2014\u00a0have embraced a philosophy he terms <\/span>lethalism<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLethalism,\u201d says Hilgers, \u201cis a clinical strategy which is aimed at solving what otherwise can be somewhat complex problems in a very simplistic and fatal way.\u201d In other words, as a society, rather than put in the work required to devise life-affirming solutions to complex problems \u2014 which can be complicated \u2014 we choose instead to \u201csolve\u201d these problems by killing whatever is seen to be causing or experiencing them. According to Hilgers, this explains not only abortion, but also the growing popularity of physician-assisted suicide. \u201cEven if they are sick, [people] commit suicide mostly because they\u2019re depressed. And depression is a disease. But [we\u2019re] unwilling to treat the depression\u2014[we\u2019re] unwilling to walk with these people during these periods of time,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked if he believes this lethalistic philosophy will change and whether <\/span>Roe<\/span><\/i> might be overturned within the foreseeable future, Hilgers responded, \u201cIt <\/span>has<\/span><\/i> to change. We cannot continue to live with this policy towards women, and their babies, and their families.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Changing the culture<\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to effect this change, Hilgers believes the pro-life movement needs to \u201cattack the anti-life movement in a much broader way \u2026 We need to develop new approaches, new ideas, new ways of expressing ourselves\u2014things that are educational, that can change a culture. We <\/span>need<\/span><\/i> to change the culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n