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Wesley J. Smith: Is the Dutch Gronningen Infanticide Protocol Akin to The Nazi Doctors?
First Things/Secondhand Smoke ^
| 9/8/10
| Wesley J. Smith
Posted on 09/08/2010 4:11:57 PM PDT by wagglebee
There is an interesting discussion underway in the thread from a previous post between two valued SHS commenters, as to whether the Dutch infanticide that has flowed illegally, but generally undisturbed. from the countrys euthanasia permissiveness, can be fairly compared to the infanticide of disabled infants during the medical Holocaust in Germany during World War II. One commenter said, appropriately, that we should be very careful before drawing such analogies. The other, who is reading Robert Jay Liftons magnificently researched The Nazi Doctors, sees striking similarities and is disturbed.
I think both are right. There are some similarities between what is happening in the Netherlands now, and what happened in Germany then. But there are also pronounced differences. In fact, I spent quite a bit of time on this subject in both Forced Exit and Culture of Death.
First, lets start with the significant differences:
- It is indisputable that the leaders of the Netherlands are not Nazis and the Dutch people have not swallowed the poisonous ideology of fascism, totalitarianism, and racial hygiene.
- In their permissive attitude toward infanticide, the Dutch are not engaged in a specifically eugenic enterprise, that is, the infanticide isnt about cleansing the race or improving the human gene plasm.
- The Dutch do not, as did the German government under Hitler, require midwives and doctors to report every child born with disabilities, in order to keep track of all for potential killing regardless of how mild the impairment. The babies killed in the Netherlands are all either terminally ill or have very serious disabilities.
- German doctors killed tens of thousands of disabled babies. Two Lancet studies showed that about 8% of all infants who die in the Netherlands are killed by doctors, amounting to about 80-90 per year.
- In Germany, the infanticide policy was based on a secret edict issued by Hitler right after the beginning of World War II and doctors were under no legal threat for participating. In the Netherlands, infanticide remains, technically, murder under the law, even though physicians are rarely prosecuted and in the few cases in which they are, face only minor and entirely symbolic sanction.
But these real and substantial differences should not make us sanguine. I strongly recommend all who are interested in this topic read The Nazi Doctors by Lifton and Death and Deliverance by Burleigh, the two best books on this topic. If you do, you will see that:
- The act of infanticide is the samebabies are being killed by doctors.
- The focus on quality of life is also similar, (although far fewer babies qualify for being killed). Germans called it life unworthy of life, or useless eaters, while the Dutch call it an unliveable life.
- The German program was not driven by Nazis but by doctorsas in the Netherlandswho called infanticide a healing treatment, thought to be best for the baby, the family, and the Reich. In the Netherlands, infanticide is deemed a compassionate act done for the baby.
- It is true that in most cases, Dutch babies are killed with the knowledge of their parentsnot that parents should be able to consent to murderbut according to a study in the Lancet, 27% of infanticides in the Netherlands are done without parental knowledge or consent.
And then there is this: The history of the first baby killed in the medical Holocaust, is eerily similar to what happens in the Netherlandsand what bioethicists like Peter Singer advocate. From my book Culture of Death:
The first known German government-approved infanticide, the killing of Baby Knauer, occurred in early 1939. The baby was blind and had a leg and an arm missing. Baby Knauers father was distraught at having a disabled child. So, he wrote to Chancellor Hitler requesting permission to have the infant put to sleep. Hitler had been receiving many such requests from German parents of disabled babies over several years and had been waiting for just the right opportunity to launch his euthanasia plans. The Knauer case seemed the perfect test case. He sent one of his personal physicians, Karl Rudolph Brandt, to investigate. Brandts instructions were to verify the facts, and if the child was disabled as described in the fathers letter, he was to assure the infants doctors that they could kill the child without legal consequence. With the Fuhrers assurance, Baby Knauers doctors willingly murdered their patient at the request of his father. Brandt witnessed the babys killing and reported back to Hitler who was pleased all went as planned. Based on this case of requested infanticide, Hitler signed the order permitting doctors to kill disabled infants.[i]
[i] Lifton, Nazi Doctors, Supra., p. 51.
So, while the Nazi analogy should be used with great restraint, and differences should be noted, the charge that Dutch infanticide has certain very disturbing similarities cannot be rejected out of hand. Indeed, in the concept of the life deemed so compromised that it justifies killing, we see disturbing echoes from history that should give us all great pause.
TOPICS: Health/Medicine; History
KEYWORDS: eugenics; euthanasia; infanticide; moralabsolutes; nazis; prolife
So, while the Nazi analogy should be used with great restraint, and differences should be noted, the charge that Dutch infanticide has certain very disturbing similarities cannot be rejected out of hand. Indeed, in the concept of the life deemed so compromised that it justifies killing, we see disturbing echoes from history that should give us all great pause. The real proof is in the fact that the culture of death is becoming bolder in their insistence that the most vulnerable be killed.
1
posted on
09/08/2010 4:12:01 PM PDT
by
wagglebee
To: cgk; Coleus; cpforlife.org; narses; Salvation; 8mmMauser
2
posted on
09/08/2010 4:13:06 PM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: BykrBayb; floriduh voter; Lesforlife
3
posted on
09/08/2010 4:13:33 PM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: 185JHP; 230FMJ; Albion Wilde; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; Amos the Prophet; ...
4
posted on
09/08/2010 4:14:13 PM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
You can read Lifton's book online here...
5
posted on
09/08/2010 4:25:34 PM PDT
by
BykrBayb
(Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
To: wagglebee
The origin of the Nazi policies was not so much political/ideological as cultural. Hitler capitalized on the "Blood and Soil" culture of the German people. The Nazi doctors were considered doctors to "das Volk," the mystical "real patient." But das Volk is in effect no differeent than the "Common Good," where " involuntary euthanasia (ie, killing)" is the rationale.
To: wagglebee
If calling them Nazis is what it takes for them to think twice about murdering babies, then I’ll call ‘em Nazis.
7
posted on
09/08/2010 5:03:30 PM PDT
by
Boogieman
To: wagglebee
If calling them Nazis is what it takes for them to think twice about murdering babies, then I’ll call ‘em Nazis.
8
posted on
09/08/2010 5:03:36 PM PDT
by
Boogieman
To: wagglebee
Right now the disabilities that get infants murdered have to be severe (which is bad enough); but as we have seen, the culture of death and depravity is never stable, it invariably hurtles downward.
So what other disabilities will be deemed to make infants (or people of other ages) worthy of being killed?
There are probably lists in the works.
9
posted on
09/08/2010 5:29:49 PM PDT
by
little jeremiah
(Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.)
To: All
10
posted on
09/12/2010 11:50:09 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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