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March 23, 2005

The historic face of euthanasia

SCOTUS Justice Kennedy indicated not long ago that American jurisprudence should take into account What.The.Europeans.Think. We know already that in the Netherlands that infants are being euthanized with little oversight. In light of the deliberate efforts to bring about Terri Schiavo's death because, well let's be frank, because she's less than what some would deem proper "personhood" let's remember the Euros have ...

been here before

The term "euthanasia" (literally, "good death") usually refers to the inducement of a painless death for a chronically or terminally ill individual. In Nazi usage, however, "euthanasia" referred to the systematic killing of the institutionalized mentally and physically handicapped, unbeknownst to their families. ...

Planning for the Euthanasia Program is thought to have begun in July 1939. In October 1939 Hitler signed a secret authorization in order to protect participating physicians, medical staff, and administrators from prosecution; this authorization was backdated to September 1, 1939, to suggest that the Euthanasia Program was related to war measures. The secret operation was code-named T4, in reference to the street address (Tiergartenstrasse 4) of the program's coordinating office in Berlin. Six gassing installations were eventually established as part of the Euthanasia Program: Bernburg, Brandenburg, Grafeneck, Hadamar, Hartheim, and Sonnenstein.

The victims of the Euthanasia Program originally included both children and adults with physical disabilities or anomalies or with mental illnesses. Patients were selected by T4 physicians for death. These doctors rarely examined the patients in this process, but often based their decisions on medical files and the diagnoses of staff at the victims' home institutions.

Please, oh heavens please, pay attention to the bolded in the next paragraph.
In August 1942, the killings resumed, albeit secretly. Victims were no longer murdered in centralized gassing installations, but instead killed by lethal injection or drug overdose at a number of clinics throughout Germany and Austria. Many of these institutions also systematically starved adult and child victims. The Euthanasia Program continued until the last days of World War II, expanding to include an ever wider range of victims: so-called asocials, geriatric patients, bombing victims, and foreign forced laborers.
Hitler had to carry out his elimination of the mentally and physically disabled in SECRET. Felos and Cranford are not only doing it out in the open, they CELEBRATE IT as a "greater good."

Lord help us all.


Posted by Darleen at March 23, 2005 12:57 PM

Comments

- Well the whole discussion may be moot, at least for this round, since too much longer without nourishment and water will no doubt deteriorate her condition to a point of no return. In addition to that, the state of Florida protective services are now talking of asserting custody pending abusive practices investigation. I'm not sure if that leaves them open to litigation by the hubby if it turns out to be a false charge, but I'm betting they'll trump the courts, since they have aboslute rights to citizen stewardship in any case of suspected foul play. Not sure thats a good thing, since there are so many pro and con issues in this situation its hardly possible to form a strong base of opinion. I suspect that not a few people would like to see the "early years" investigated closer, more to see if there was any wrong doing than the ultimate fate of Terri herself. You can't escape the nagging feeling that whether Terri is truly terminal or not, that in no way should obviate the investigation of the original series of events that brought her to where shes at. I think thats one of the things that bother people. With her in the ground theres a lot less chance of any effective turning of those facts. On a different level I agree with Kevin at WhizBang, that this case has very strong overtones of the whole pro-choice/pro-life debate with possible repercusions to Roe vs Wade. Issues of this sort that cut to the heart of so many, across such a wide swathe of our society, may always sit in a sort of unresolved limbo, since as great as our form of government is, none of the three branches are Solomon-wise, and we may have no choice but to cut the baby in half sometimes for the good of society as a whole. I just don't know. I'm not sure how anyone can at this point. I just know I'd like to see her placed in a holding pattern while the whole thing gets sorted out by dispassionate people, not in any way connected to the original "camp".

Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at March 23, 2005 04:43 PM