Some responses have come in for two articles (here and here) for The Washington Stand laying out must-read books for anyone who wants to delve deeply into sanctity of human life issues. If you missed these two articles, here is a chance to catch up and find answers to such questions as, “Did 19th century feminists endorse or oppose ‘abortion rights’?”, “What is the stance of the major religions on legal abortion, and which ones have changed or held fast in the current century?”; “Is it necessary to be a political conservative to stand for the rights of the unborn?”; and “What makes a tiny embryo a member of the human family and entitled to the respect of the community and the law?”

As invited, a few suggestions have been received for additions to a list that reached almost 20 books. Dr. Michael New, one of the leading statistical experts advocating for the right to life and assistant professor at the Busch Business School at the Catholic University of America, suggested that readers pick up a copy of a second book by the late J.C. Willke, M.D., and Barbara Willke, RN, written with one of their daughters, Marie Willke Meyers, M.D. The book is titled “Abortion and the Pro-Life Movement: An Inside View” (2014). It offers an historical account from two leaders in the cause, from their origin in Ohio to the international stage. It complements Daniel K. Williams’s account of the very first days of the pro-life movement by focusing on national political developments and the evolution of the battle, with the growth and diversification of organizations and missions.

One obvious omission in this reading list is that it is all non-fiction. No account of the history of the Civil War would be complete without reference to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” or “Life Among the Lowly.” Written by a Connecticut abolitionist and proto-feminist, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” appeared in 1852 and, over time, became the second highest-selling book in the United States, after the Bible. Its depiction of some black characters as accommodating and weak diluted the regard it was held in over time, but its depiction of the toll of slavery resonated with and motivated millions of Americans to end the practice of human bondage in our society.

Is there a similar work on sanctity of life issues? It is hard to name a book of similar impact, but one candidate exists that showed a harrowing prescience (though by the time it appeared much of the calamity it depicts had already come to pass) about the condition of the United States and human civilization. That book is Walker Percy’s 1993 novel “The Thanatos Syndrome.” Percy’s last novel, in a string that began with “The Moviegoer,” winner of the National Book Award in 1961, “The Thanatos Syndrome” is a mixture of genres that combines science fiction, black comedy, and trenchant moral commentary. It has deep religious insight, but its protagonist is unusual, the psychiatrist Tom More who, as the novel opens, is returning to society after serving a prison sentence for prescribing illicit drugs to help truckers stay awake.

The plot of the novel revolves around a series of observations More makes about the Louisiana community to which he has returned. People are changing and behaving in startling ways. Sexual behavior is rapidly loosening, becoming almost animal-like in its carelessness and promiscuity. People are losing inhibitions, and their language and reasoning powers fade even as their general level of distress and anxiety decline and they become more docile and unlikely to question their conditions and surroundings. Men and women who have been subject to severe psychological disorders, depression, or obsessive-compulsive traits, exhibit fewer of these symptoms. Crime rates and social conflict diminish.

The plot thickens in “The Thanatos Syndrome” when More enlists the help of another doctor, his cousin Lucy Lipscomb, in seeking an explanation for the radical changes occurring in human behavior. The narrative reminds one of the quotation from Dostoevsky about the eternal contest for souls: “The terrible thing is that beauty is not only fearful but also mysterious. Here the devil is struggling with God, and the battlefield is the human heart.”

As their investigations proceed, Drs. More and Lipscomb learn that the changes in human character are not a natural development but the result of an experiment called Project Blue Boy whose goal is to pacify people, reduce criminality, and spawn contentment. As one review of “The Thanatos Syndrome” puts it, placing it in context with Percy’s other work, the price of this pacification is apocalyptic. Project Blue Boy “turns out to be a utopian scheme to control human behavior by means not only of secret drugs that destroy the fully conscious self but also of deadly centers where the killing of infants, the aged, and the disabled becomes commonplace.”

We are more than three decades along from the publication of “The Thanatos Syndrome” and much of its dire forecast has come to pass. A thriving state that has been an intellectual hub for America has a collapsing birth rate and has just legalized the killing of developing children up to and including birth. Ten states have similar laws, three more (Virginia, Nevada, and Idaho) have similar proposals on the ballot this fall, and the passage of a federal statute to remove all shred of the right to life for the unborn is foreseeable. The national government recently renewed massive funding for the primary organization advocating such policies.

The Sexual Revolution has abrogated legal support for natural marriage and embraced the abolition of sexual complementarity. More than 100,000 people in neighboring Canada have died by assisted suicide and euthanasia encouraged by the state. The movement to implement similar laws globally has experienced a few defeats but continues to advance in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, New Zealand, Colombia, Portugal, Luxembourg, Jersey, and throughout Australia. A prominent journal is raising the prospect of achieving assisted death by withholding food and drink from patients. Advocacy for polyamory — households with three or more people engaged in sexual encounters and parenting — is appearing more frequently in the media as well as on the Planned Parenthood website. In vitro fertilization is gaining new champions in both national parties in the United States, with companies devoted to genetic selection and promising the “best babies” for anyone willing and able to pay the highest fees.

In the midst of such phenomena, the ubiquity of profanity seems like a minuscule concern, but in truth it epitomizes the trials we face. Public figures use words unheard of in civil society for centuries. The highest leaders are not exempt. The media is rife with scatology. The trade in gambling, drug consumption, and porn access offers outlets that promise the illusion of reward and satisfaction but in fact benefit only a handful of the rich. A police officer who takes his own life after wagering away tens of thousands of dollars is a one-day story.

The intersection among all these developments is the vital need for a moral compass, the recognition of red lines that are not mere symbols of virtue but boundaries that keep us safe from larger crimes and recklessness. In “The Thanatos Syndrome,” the reversion of human beings to the status of primates was intended by Project Blue Boy to be the acceptable price for achieving docility and lowering crime. How is that working out in today’s world when the God of Death has become our senior partner?

Fortunately, with the signal fires all around us, we have a wealth of literature to turn to in these perilous times. Publishers Weekly reported in January that sales of the Bible in the United States rose 12% in 2025 to the highest level in 21 years — twice as many since 2019. Sales in the United Kingdom are similarly rising (and a new assisted suicide debate is scheduled in just a few weeks). Our nations desperately need a new birth of faith, family, and freedom, and it is wise, no matter how one apocalyptic one may be about the future, to pray and act as if time is short.