Dr. Kermit Gosnell — the Philadelphia doctor serving life behind bars for killing babies born alive during botched abortions — suffers from a "God complex," according to journalist Steve Volk, who interviewed the disgraced physician in prison.
"I think there's some sort of narcissism, there's like a God complex happening," Volk told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"I truly believe that when people fail to see things the way he does, instead of seeing that as a reason to check his own thinking, he sees it as a sign of how much brighter he is than the rest of us."
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Volk spoke with Gosnell for an article in Philadelphia magazine, grilling him on his May 2013 conviction on three counts of murder, 21 counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law.
He said that Gosnell's actions were hinged partially on his belief that he was doing the right thing.
"[He] professes to be a religious guy and he had this kind of self-righteous sort of sense of himself and it became very easy for him, anyway, to rationalize all the choices he made in light of these beliefs and he ended up where he did," Volk said.
He said Gosnell showed "a real charisma there and a real intelligence" during parts of the interview.
"But once we turned to the facts of his case, his logic becomes so twisted to sort of suit his purposes and to suit this sense of himself that he had that he became, at times, really kind of disturbing to talk to," he said.
"I could see how in his mind this rationalization made some sense, but it wouldn't make any sense to most anyone else."
Volk's new book "
Gosnell Babies: Inside the Mind of America’s Most Notorious Abortionist," is now available.
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