The Euthanasia Program

"The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it." This is a quote by the Angel of Death himself, a man who brought medical advancements and discoveries to the Nazi society. Throughout the Holocaust there have been many experiments for the better of medicine and the disregard of its patients. These experiments had no regard to the patient's' well being and partly due to the hate of the victims but mainly due to the medical breakthroughs that brought forth. The holocaust in retrospect was very beneficial to the medical and experimental society as a whole.

Euthanasia got its modern connotation beginning in the late nineteenth century (Dowbiggin 1). The Great Depression caused a major spike in discussion concerning suicide and controlled dying (Dowbiggin 33). Suicide rates rose about four percent at the beginning of the Great Depression, but slowly began to decrease across the entire decade. Several important figures killed themselves, which alerted several people to the need to talk about suicide and methods people killed themselves (Dowbiggin 34). Voluminous topics of euthanasia lead towards a conversation about Hitler, and the way he sterilized and euthanized people, bringing the negative connotation into the discussion (Singer 201). What some fail to see is that in the medical community, the

When you think of the holocaust what do you think of? Hitler and the Nnazis? A perfect race? Or do you think of hurting and killing people? Do you think of the six million people that died? You may read that number and not even know how to imagine that many people. But that was six million grandparents, mothers, fathers, and even children. Every single person that died in the Holocaust had a story, Tthey all were worth something to someone. Many people wonder, “Why even bother to learn about something so tremendously horrible that killed an innumerable amount of people?” If all it does is make you sad thean what's the point? Well, the people that died deserve our respect. Their lives mattered. They mattered to their family, to friends, to God, and now they need to matter to us. Every human life is is important, those living and those who have passed on before us. There are possible threats to have a Holocaust-like event happen again. We need to learn

Another group of victims in the Holocaust was the mentally and physically handicapped. It Hitler’s mind, his new vision of the world needed to be ‘perfect’ and these people threatened it. The majority of the handicapped were killed on the spot instead of being put through the concentration camps. In 1939, the ‘euthanasia

There are photos all over the internet, photos at Nuremberg, photographs that regular people took of the killings the Nazis were doing. There is even a picture of a book that has the registry of everyone who died and who was killed. These people on this photograph where all disabled and mentally disabled and they were part of the Euthanasia project in Germany. -National Archives and Records Administration. Then there is also a cemetery at the hadamar institute where victims of that same euthanasia project were buried in graves. With hundreds and hundreds of graves in that one small acre of

The Nazi Party wanted to get rid of all who were not healthy enough to work. Contrary to this fear, there are important “safeguards” to prevent anything like the holocaust from happening with euthanasia or physician assisted suicide (Brock 59). According to a survey done by the Louis Finklestein Institute for social and Religious Research and HCD in February of 2007, fifty-four percent of the doctors who participated believe the government should not control or regulate physician-assisted suicide (Friedman 35). It should be a matter between the patient and his or her medical practitioner. Also, those who oppose euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide may also fear those who are physically or mentally disabled may one day be grouped with those who are terminally ill (Friedman 62). This would not be a problem. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act has a safeguard―the patient must have a predicted lifespan of only 6 months to live to even qualify for being eligible to partake in using this act (Friedman 59). This safeguard is in place so neither the doctor nor the patient can falsely apply. Additionally, euthanasia for terminally ill children is still “morally repugnant” in many of the European countries today. This hatred for the euthanasia of children stems from the Nazis, who killed thousands of

Euthanasia is one of the most controversial topics in modern society, and every human being has a different view on it according to their culture, their nation's

For example, the Nazis set up euthanasia program that targeted the physically and mentally ill. The word “euthanasia” literally means merciful death. Heads of the euthanasia program called their enterprise “T4”. The euthanasia program was the first mass murder program initiated by the Nazis. If the disabled were not killed, they were sterilized so they could not reproduce. According to JewishVirtualLibrary, “Meticulous records discovered after the war documented 70,273 deaths by gassing at the six "euthanasia" centers between January 1940 and August 1941.” (Persecution of the Mentally & Physically Disabled 1). Furthermore, during the euthanasia program, the Nazis would call the parents of disabled children and tell them to send their kids to “pediatric care centers”. These care centers were really killing centers. The kids would go to take a shower, but instead of water coming out of the nozzle, it would be poisonous gas that would kill the kid. Workers would clean out the shower and prepare it to receive the next person up in line. The dead body would be burned in a crematorium into ashes. Then, workers would take some ashes from a central pile and put them into an urn to send to the parents of the dead. Even though the physicians and workers would say the victims died of natural causes, the program quickly became common knowledge. Everyone knew about the program and started to protest. Eventually, Hitler was pressured into ordering a halt to the dreaded program. Although he ordered a halt publicly, the killings still went on in secrecy. The "Euthanasia" program continued on until the last days of World War II. It expanded to include a wider range of victims including geriatric patients, bombing victims, and foreign forced laborers. In total, most historians estimate that the "Euthanasia" Program, a death sentence for the disabled, claimed the lives of up to 500,000

“Man is not born good. He becomes good by learning there is another beside him and another above him.”-Unknown. The Holocaust must be remembered to prevent genocide from happening again. This must be prevented from happening at all within the future of the entire planet. There will be people that will try and overthrow a certain race of people but the Holocaust has taught many people that it is very wrong and inhumane. The Holocaust was very tragical but, maybe their was a good thing behind all of those deaths. There may have been a light behind all of the darkness. That light consisted of people learning that destroying an entire race of people can be very damaging to everyone and it can affect the outcome of history. Therefore preventing any extreme extermination of many and multiple human races. This is why we must remember the Holocaust and its damaging effects on the human race but, there are reasons it should be forgotten.

The beginning of gas chambers was in the beginning of 1940. The gas chambers were used to kill millions of people with any sort of disability. Gas chambers were part of the Euthanasia Program. The Euthanasia Program was known to kill anyone who was deemed not fit to live. There was six gassing stations: Bernburg, Brandenburg, Grafeneck, Hadamar, and Sonnenstein. These stations used mainly undiluted carbon monoxide gas. Gas vans weren’t exposed until 1941. The name of the gas vans were called Einsatzgruppen. The vans were sealed shut so the gas from the inside reaches the back. The vans were designed because the Germans were tired of shooting people. So, they decided to gas people for cost reasons and fatigue. Many members of the SS believed

The controversy of a doctor assisting their patient who is already dying, end their life sooner to save them from continuous unnecessary pain and agony has been the topic of controversy for years. The practice of euthanasia is in my opinion a mercy and should not be banned because in reality it doesn’t physically hurt anyone. You could say it hurts the patient but then again that patient is already in tremendous pain or in an incapacitated state of no recovery, as in paralyzed or brain damage etc., so in reality it would actually help them by assisting ending their pain by assisted suicide. A doctors job is also always help their patients and the practice of assisted suicide in many ways is actually helping the person. However there has and probably always will be people who do not agree with the idea of a dying person end their life for sooner than nature had intended. This demographic would suggest that by dying by your own hand or assisted by a physician for medical reasons is still considered plain suicide. And for the religious people it is a sin by their beliefs. The people could also argue that it is not a person’s right to make that decision.

In order to understand Germany’s widespread acceptance of the 1933 Law for Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring and the subsequent implementation of the T4 euthanasia program in 1939, it is necessary to discuss the scientific origins of eugenics. Within this discussion, a distinction must also be made between genetics and eugenics. German scientist Gregor Mendel is known to be the father of genetics. Between the years 1856 to 1863, he conducted groundbreaking research on the inheritance of plant hybrids. While the importance of Mendel’s work was not realized until sixteen years after his death in 1884, he has since been credited for his role in discovering the statistical laws of heredity; from which it was concluded that genetic traits could be transferred from one generation to the next. Following Mendel’s death, the principles outlined in his laws of heredity continued to serve as a reference point for scientific scholars, including Nazi physicians whom often cited Mendelian law in their justifications for sterilization and euthanasia.

The ethical issue is Euthanasia, there are many groups that support or oppose this issue. Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. The different viewpoints are based around whether it is humane to assist someone in dying and whether it should be illegal for someone to assist the death of someone who has a terminal illness and are suffering incurable pain. Groups that oppose the issue generally believe that it is inhumane to end someone 's life early, these groups generally believe these people should be given care and as much comfort as possible until their last days. Groups that support the issue generally believe that if someone has lost their mental state or are suffering unbearable pain that cannot be cured, that they should be allowed the option of euthanasia because it is inhumane to make someone suffer unbearable pain if they do not need to. An ethical issue brings systems of morality and principles into conflict, ethical issues are more subjective and opinionated and generally cannot be solved with facts, laws and truth. Euthanasia is an ethical issue because there are two equally unacceptable options. It is considered wrong

This is why Euthanasia is important and summarizing the research that I found on Euthanasia. Euthanasia is important because there is a lot of arguments about Euthanasia. Some people support it and some people do not support Euthanasia (Euthanasia and assisted suicide- Arguments). Euthanasia allows people to be free from physical pain. It is the hastening of death of a patient to prevent further sufferings (Euthanasia Revisited). The religious argument states God chooses when human life ends. Euthanasia also causes mental suffering because they are in physical pain or they are experiencing with terminal illness. It is a debatable issue. There are many different opinions on Euthanasia.

Euthanasia is a controversial topic throughout today’s society. As euthanasia is illegal in America, Singer fights for the legalization of voluntary euthanasia, which means the patients make voluntary request to be assisted to die. While religious views value that the life cannot be taken away so easily, Singer focuses on the human rights that enable their choices to die or not to die. However, I do not agree with singer’s respect for autonomy on the issue of voluntary euthanasia because this issue involves two parties. It is not sufficient to consider the single patients’ will; the option of voluntary euthanasia brings lot consequences for community in moral and academic aspects. My utilitarian view on euthanasia maximizes the large amount of happiness rather than the individual happiness.