- Headline
-
Euthanasia Vs. Murder
- Publication Date
- Wednesday, October 22, 1941
- Historical Event
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German Bishop Condemns The Killing Of People With Disabilities
This database includes 143 articles about this event - Tags
- Article Type
- Newspaper
- Page Section and Number
- 18
- Author/Byline
- Inez C. Philbrick, M.D.
- Image Text
- EUTHANASIA VS. MURDER To the Editor of The News: In a recent issue of The News con• siderable space was given to the report of the Special News Service on the denunciation by the bishop of Muenster of the recent killings of thousands of inmates of German institutions. It is most unfortunate that these killings should have been designated "mercy killings"; most unfortunate, in that casual readers may have been led tO confuse these killings with that "legalized euthanasia" now openly advocated by hundreds of our leading ministers, physicians, biologists, and humanitarians outside these professions. It is the acme of unreason to attribute to the sole authority responsible for these killings, that sadist madman now run amok in Europe, or to his henchmen, possession of an lota of the sentiment of mercy. Nor can the proclaimer of an absurd theory of racial superiority, one rejected by scientific authority in every free land, be credited with understanding of eugenic principles. Nor can the dictator responsible for the shooting or torturing to death, constantly and persistently, of the men possessed of the best minds of Europe, men n who are naturally leaders, be motivated by eugenic considerations. Mercy and eugenics being ruled out, it takes no clairvoyance to discover the real purpose of these killings, a purpose confessed in the use by their perpetrators of the phrase "unproductive lives," that of releasing vast sums for the making of munitions and the maintenance of an army of devastation, pillage and slaughter. The character of the authority back of these killings, the indiscriminate use of this authority and the purpose involved therein brand these killings as mass, mercenary murders. Granted that, incidentally, in certain cases, the ends of mercy and eugenics have been served, nevertheless no one can more strenuously denounce these killings than will the advocates of legalized euthanasia. Under legalized euthanasia, authority for its administration and responsibility for its safeguarding will rest in our courts of law. The method of its administration will demand thorough examination by qualified physicians. Its sole purpose will be the relief of hopeless suffering and the release of imprisoned lives. INEZ C. PHILBRICK, M. D. Member American Advisory Council, Euthanasia Society of America, Inc. R. R. 5, Dayton.
- History Unfolded Contributor
- Marlene K.
- Location of Research
- Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)
Learn More about this Historical Event: German Bishop Condemns The Killing Of People With Disabilities
- Euthanasia Program (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
- Nazi Persecution of the Disabled: “Murder of the Unfit”
- Bishop of Muenster Protests Killings
Bibliography
Aly, Götz, Peter Chroust, and Christian Pross. Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Burleigh, Michael. Death and Deliverance: "Euthanasia" in Germany c. 1900-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
All articles about this event