First, one has to remember that Judge Greer has never asked Terri if she wants to die. Remember that if you have ruled that she is in a vegetative state, then there is no point.Gee, this sounds familiar.The Judge relies solely on expert medical testimony.
Where have I heard this before I wonder ...
A whole legal system was set up.- - - - - - - -Courts for the prevention of hereditary illnesses were instituted called "Erbgesundheitsgerichte" (Hereditary Health Courts) and attached to the existing district courts as well as the Higher Courts.
Sitting on these were always one judge and two doctors (usually psychiatrists) present in court hearings of this nature. Witnesses and specialists could be called upon and the rules for civil procedure were to be normally applied.
From:
Hitler's men pg 4
and this:
- - - - - - - - - - - -
In the middle of 1939 the end-phase of the administrative preparations of the euthanasia programme was started. It dealt almost entirely with keeping it secure and secret. The German people were under no circumstances to become suspicious and the project was to roll without any interference. It was therefore necessary to disguise the activities as much as possible.- - - - - - - -Questionnaires had already been prepared by the psychiatric committee and advisers, and in October these were sent to the mental institutions of Germany. These questionnaires required answers to a number of questions including name, marital status, nationality, next of kin, whether regularly visited and by whom, who bore the financial responsibility and how long in the institution, how long sick, diagnosis, chief symptoms, whether bed-ridden, whether under restraint, whether suffering from an incurable sickness or complaint, and whether a war injury or not. And, what was the race of the patient. These questionnaires were prepared and sent out by one of the front groups which operated under T4.
In classic psychiatric style four front groups had been set up to shield the actual source of the operations in T4 from scrutiny.
The idea being essentially that T4 itself would issue orders to the front group who would then carry out the necessary measures. Anybody seeking to trace back the administrative chain, say from a hospital where patients were being taken to be murdered, would arrive at one of these four front groups and the chances of getting any further back than that were very small.
...
Ironically the relatives of the patients were charged with the cost of the killing, without however being informed as to what they were paying for. The questionnaires having been sent out were completed by the psychiatrists, doctors in charge of the patients in the asylums.
When the questionnaires came back they were evaluated by the psychiatric and professional members of T4 who were mainly leading professors of psychiatry in German Universities.
**** The whole business was in keeping with the euthanasia programme in that no one was ever actually examined in person, in direct violation of any normal medical approach or standards*****, especially when one considers that life or death hung on the decision of the psychiatrist evaluating.
Processing of the questionnaires was done very rapidly; for example one expert between November 14th and December 1st 1940 evaluated 2,109 of them.
From:
Hitler's men pg 6
Scary, huh?
History is repeating itself ...
Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
We are witness to the final days of our Republic.
The picture of Terri with her husband on page 1.
That's what I don't get.
The deterioration that has occurred doesn't jibe with what I have seen as a nurse in similar cases. I am continually struck by how her hands have curled to such an extent and her left leg completely turned outwardly. This is from lack of ROM and simple measures that every health care worker knows how to do. Her leg should have been braced. Washclothes put in her hands.