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R e v i e w
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This Rock
Volume 15, Number 10
 December 2004 
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Architects of the Culture of Death
Philosopher George Santayana is famous for the observation that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Donald De Marco, a professor of philosophy at St. Jerome’s College, and Benjamin Wiker, a lecturer in science and theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, might restate Santayana’s proverb and add "again, and again, and again."
In Architects of the Culture of Death, an expansion of a series of articles that were written originally for the National Catholic Register, De Marco and Wiker offer short biographies of some of the philosophers and scientists responsible for creating the blueprints for the culture of death under which the twenty-first century now labors. Their purpose is to demonstrate how the lives and choices of these individuals influenced the contributions they made to our modern reign of the Grim Reaper.
Divided into sections with such themes as "The Will Worshippers," "The Eugenic Evolutionists," "The Pleasure Seekers," and "The Death Peddlers," De Marco and Wiker profile twenty-three architects. Some are famous, such as the popularizer of evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin; some are obscure, such as Derek Humphry, founder of the euthanasia group the Hemlock Society; and some may surprise you by their inclusion, as does Helen Gurley Brown, longtime editor of the women’s magazine Cosmopolitan and author of such tawdry titles as Sex and the Single Girl. But all have earned their spot in De Marco and Wiker’s pantheon of death architects.
Some of the biographies are more in-depth, especially with those architects who are historical figures and about whose lives more information is available. Thus, nineteenth-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s biography is rich and detailed, while the chapter devoted to modern philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson is entirely given over to analysis and critique of her seminal essay "A Defense of Abortion." A few minutes spent online yielded more personal information about Thomson than does this book.
While the book is well-organized and insightful, it is not a book for everyone. Parents of teenagers, even those teenagers who are mature and well-prepared in their faith, will not want their teens to read the sexually graphic and stomach-churning chapter that reveals the private perversities of sexologist Alfred C. Kinsey. Indeed, I wondered at points in that chapter if I needed to know the explicit details of Kinsey’s sexual disorders.
Despite minor faults, Architects of the Culture of Death is a fascinating and absorbing look into the lives of those past and present who have participated significantly in shaping the culture of death. At points in their tales I found myself wondering how the course of mankind might have been altered had they chosen different paths and murmuring a Hail Mary or two for the repose of the souls of those architects who led particularly tormented lives.
The American Life League’s Judie Brown, in the foreword, challenges readers to read the book again if it leaves them "totally unchanged." It is to be hoped that her challenge does not go unmet. If indeed De Marco and Wiker’s work inspires readers to re-order the course of their own lives and commit themselves to helping to rebuild a culture of life, then those profiled in the book and all those for whose deaths they are responsible will not have lived and died in vain.
—Michelle Arnold
Architects of the Culture of Death
By Donald De Marco and Benjamin Wiker
Ignatius Press
375 pages
$16.95
ISBN: 1586170163
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