Posted on 03/31/2005 11:49:50 AM PST by Thanatos
Neo-Nazis Kill Terri Schiavo
Mar 30th, 2005
by William Federer Even before the rise of Adolph Hitler's Third Reich, the way for the gruesome Nazi holocaust of human extermination and cruel butchery was being prepared in the 1930 German Weimar Republic through the medical establishment and philosophical elite's adoption of the "quality of life" concept in place of the "sanctity of life." The Nuremberg trials, exposing the horrible Nazi war crimes, revealed that Germany's trend toward atrocity began with their progressive embrace of the Hegelian doctrine of "rational utility," where an individual's worth is in relation to their contribution to the state, rather than determined in light of traditional moral, ethical and religious values. This gradual transformation of national public opinion, promulgated through media and education, was described in an article written by the British commentator Malcolm Muggeridge, entitled "The Humane Holocaust," and in an article written by former United States Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, M.D., entitled "The Slide to Auschwitz," both published in The Human Life Review, 1977 and 1980 respectively. Malcolm Muggeridge stated: "Near at hand, we have been accorded, for those that have eyes to see, an object lesson in what the quest for 'quality of life' without reference to 'sanctity of life' can involve.... the great Nazi holocaust, whose TV presentation has lately been harrowing viewers throughout the Western world. In this televised version, an essential consideration has been left out - namely, that the origins of the holocaust lay, not in Nazi terrorism and anti-Semitism, but in pre-Nazi Weimar Germany's acceptance of euthanasia and mercy-killing as humane and estimable.... It took no more than three decades to transform a war crime into an act of compassion, thereby enabling the victors in the war against Nazi-ism to adopt the very practices for which the Nazis had been solemnly condemned at Nuremberg."1 The transformation followed thus: the concept that the elderly and terminally ill should have the right to die was promoted in books, newspapers, literature and even entertainment films, the most popular of which were entitled Ich klage an (I accuse) and Mentally Ill. One euthanasia movie, based on a novel by a National Socialist doctor, actually won a prize at the world-famous Venice Film Festival! Extreme hardship cases were cited which increasingly convinced the public to morally approve of euthanasia. The medical profession gradually grew accustomed to administering death to patients who, for whatever reasons, felt their low "quality of life" rendered their lives not worth living, or as it was put, liebensunwerten Lebens, (life unworthy of life).2 In an Associated Press release, published in the New York Times, October 10, 1933, entitled "Nazi Plan to Kill Incurables to End Pain; German Religious Groups Oppose Move," it was stated: "The Ministry of Justice, in a detailed memorandum explaining the Nazi aims regarding the German penal code, today announced its intentions to authorize physicians to end the sufferings of the incurable patient. The memorandum...proposed that it shall be possible for physicians to end the tortures of incurable patients, upon request, in the interest of true humanity. This proposed legal recognition of euthanasia - the act of providing a painless and peaceful death - raised a number of fundamental problems of a religious, scientific, and legal nature. The Catholic newspaper Germania hastened to observe: 'The Catholic faith binds the conscience of its followers not to accept this method'... In Lutheran circles, too, life is regarded as something that God alone can take.... Euthanasia... has become a widely discussed word in the Reich.... No life still valuable to the State will be wantonly destroyed."3 Nationalized health care and government involvement in medical care promised to improve the public's "quality of life."4 Unfortunately, the cost of maintaining government medical care was a contributing factor to the growth of the national debt, which reached astronomical proportions. Double and triple digit inflation crippled the economy, resulting in the public demanding that government cut expenses.5 This precipitated the 1939 order to cut federal expenses. The national socialist government decided do remove "useless" expenses from the budget, which included the support and medical costs required to maintain the lives of the retarded, insane, senile, epileptic, psychiatric patients, handicapped, deaf, blind, the non-rehabilitable ill, and those who had been diseased or chronically ill for five years or more. It was labeled an "act of mercy" to "liberate them through death," as they were viewed as having an extremely low "quality of life," as well as being a tax burden on the public. The public psyche was conditioned for this, as even school math problems compared distorted medical costs incurred by the taxpayer of caring for and rehabilitating the chronically sick, with the cost of loans to newly married couples for new housing units.6 The next whose lives were terminated by the state were the elderly in institutions who had no relatives and no financial resources. These lonely, forsaken individuals were needed by no one and would be missed by no one. Their "quality of life" was considered low by everyone's standards, and they were a tremendous tax burden on the economically distressed state.7 The next to be eliminated were the parasites on the state: the street people, bums, beggars, hopelessly poor, gypsies, prisoners, inmates and convicts. These were socially disturbing individuals incapable of providing for themselves, whose "quality of life" was considered by the public as irreversibly below standard, in addition to the fact that they were a nuisance to society and a seed-bed for crime.8 The liquidation grew to include those who had been unable to work, the socially unproductive, and those living on welfare or government pensions. They drew financial support from the state, but contributed nothing financially back. They were looked upon as "useless eaters," leeches, stealing from those who worked hard to pay the taxes to support them. Their unproductive lives were a burden on the "quality of life" of those who had to pay the taxes.9 The next to be eradicated were the ideologically unwanted, the political enemies of the state, religious extremists, and those "disloyal" individuals considered to be holding the government back from producing a society which would function well and provide everyone a better "quality of life." The moving biography of the imprisoned Dietrich Bonhoffer chronicled the injustices. These individuals also were a source of "human experimental material," allowing military medical research to be carried on with human tissue, thus providing valuable information which promised to improve the nation's health .10 Finally, justifying their actions on the purported theory of evolution, the Nazi's considered the German, or "Aryan," race as "ubermenschen," supermen, being more advanced in the supposed progress of human evolution. This resulted in the twisted conclusion that all other races, and in particular the Jewish race, were less evolved, and needed to be eliminated from the so-called "human gene pool," ensuring that future generations of humans would have a higher "quality of life."11 C. Everett Koop, M.D., stated: "The first step is followed by the second step. You can say that if the first step is moral then whatever follows must be moral. The important thing, however, is this: whether you diagnose the first step as being one worth taking or being one that is precarious rests entirely on what the second step is likely to be... I am concerned about this because when the first 273,000 German aged, infirm, and retarded were killed in gas chambers there was no outcry from that medical profession either, and it was not far from there to Auschwitz."12 Can this holocaust happen in America? Indeed, it has already begun. The idea of killing a person and calling it "death with dignity" is an oxymoron. The "mercy-killing" movement puts us on the same path as pre-Nazi Germany. The "quality of life" concept, which eventually results in the Hegelian utilitarian attitude of a person's worth being based on their contribution toward perpetuating big government, is in stark contrast to America's founding principles. This philosophy which lowers the value of human life, shocked attendees at the Governor's Commission on Disability, in Concord, New Hampshire, October 5, 2001, as they heard the absurd comments of Princeton University professor Peter Singer. The Associated Press reported Singer's comments: "I do think that it is sometimes appropriate to kill a human infant," he said, adding that he does not believe a newborn has a right to life until it reaches some minimum level of consciousness. "For me, the relevant question is, what makes it so seriously wrong to take a life?" Singer asked. "Those of you who are not vegetarians are responsible for taking a life every time you eat. Species is no more relevant than race in making these judgments."13 Singer's views, if left unchecked, could easily lead to a repeat of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, if not something worse. Add to that unbridled advances in the technology of cloning, DNA test which reveal physical defects, human embryos killed for the purpose of gathering stem cells to treat Diseases...and a haunting future unfolds before us. President Theodore Roosevelt's warning in 1909 seems appropriate: "Progress has brought us both unbounded opportunities and unbridled difficulties. Thus, the measure of our civilization will not be that we have done much, but what we have done with that much. I believe that the next half century will determine if we will advance the cause of Christian civilization or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism. The thought of modern industry in the hands of Christian charity is a dream worth dreaming. The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining. The choice between the two is upon us."14 In his State of the Union address in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt stated: "There are those who believe that a new modernity demands a new morality. What they fail to consider is the harsh reality that there is no such thing as a new morality. There is only one morality. All else is immorality. There is only true Christian ethics over against which stands the whole of paganism. If we are to fulfill our great destiny as a people, then we must return to the old morality, the sole morality.... All these blatant sham reformers, in the name of a new morality, preach the old vice of self-indulgence which rotted out first the moral fiber and then even the external greatness of Greece and Rome."15 In biblical comparison, Jesus showed mercy by healing the sick and giving sanity back to the deranged, but never did he kill them. This attitude was exemplified by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose version of "death with dignity" is to gather the dying from off the street, and show compassion to these rejected and abandoned members of the human race, all the while knowing that they may only survive for another half hour. Her "mercy-living" movement goes to great trouble to house, wash and feed even the most hopeless and derelict, because of inherent respect for the "sanctity of life" of each individual. This attitude is summed up in her statement: "I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus."16 Will America chose the "sanctity of life" concept, as demonstrated by Mother Teresa, or will America chose the "quality of life" concept, championed by self-proclaimed doctors of death court decisions - such as in the case of Terri Schiavo - and continue its slide toward Auschwitz? What kind of subtle anesthetic has been allowed to deaden our national conscience? What horrors await us? The question is not whether the suffering and dying person's life should be terminated, the question is what kind of nation will we become if they are? Their physical death is preceded only by our moral death! |
Folks, I found out to my dismay (and horror..) that my own family members, because they do not watch anything but the local network news and get the same biased slant from the local newspapers, here in north Florida -- that my siblings knew nothing about the case and were commenting on "that poor husband only wanting to do what..." and were so absolutely un-clued in that, I had to set them straight of course.
All the time thinking; "The MSM wins again..." (or they think, they did-do. Ha. We fooled them last time, didn't we?)
By your own admissions, it sounds to me like you would have been welcome in a county where they killed those who had "lives not worth living".
You admitted giving what you knew were overdoses of pain killer to hasten the death of someone. You not only promote it, but admittedly participated.
I might add that you are quite willing to punish the child of a rapist for his father's crime, to boot. I am not surprised.
So you would not allow society to learn any lesson from the Holocaust. Then those who have misused the term have beaten you.
One of the few constants of the universe: Human nature never changes.
Godwin's standard answer to this objection is to note that Godwin's law does not dispute whether, in a particular instance, a reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be apt. It is precisely because such a reference or comparison may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued, that hyperbolic overuse of the Hitler/Nazi comparison should be avoided. Avoiding such hyperbole, he argues, is a way of ensuring that when valid comparisons to Hitler or Nazis are made, such comparisons have the appropriate semantic impact.
Emphasis added.
If you want to have a discussion of theology, we can do it. God did not just judge Israel. Foreign nations were God's rod against Israel, however. Then God judged those pagan nations in turn.
Read the minor prophets. I do not know the reasons why God brings his judgments and when. I cannot for certain say what 9/11 was judgment for. I do know that the murder of innocents brings his judgments.
Florida Pinellas County Judgenfuhrer Greer: "Evil never dies."
"Further, I don't think my stand on these issues classify
me as a Nazi! BTW, I'm 75 years old and I LIVED THROUGH WWII. Did you?"
I did not, but agree with your points re:post 77.
The real wackos are crawling out of the woodwork now!
Then why are we urged to be 'Christ-like?'
I think you tend to misrepresent Robertson's and Falwell's words and intentions a little here, (and I'm a Catholic, no apologist for evangelicals and fundamentalists).
I think the premise for this "Falwell/Robertson line", as you call it, is not so much that the Islamofacists slammed their planes into the WTC buildings because God told them to punish us for abortion, but that men exist who wish us harm, and perhaps God won't be so protective of a nation that sends His children back to Him faster than He creates them. That's the connection I believe Robertson and Falwell were trying to establish between abortion and 9-11.
It's not a difficult proposition to understand, really, and I think this secularist attack against people like Falwell, Robertson, the Pope, etc, by placing distorted interpretations to their admonitions is part of our problem in America today. Everyone wants to be their own moral theologian, ignoring the Bible, and Christian teachers who may be more gifted in that department, and who just might be saying something worth considering and investigating before condeming.
In any case, the pro euthanasia folks had to lay low for a while for fear of being associated with the Nazis.
We can't blame the Nazis for it. The idea has persisted in western thought since the 19th century. It's a cultural thing we have to deal with. If we choose to embrace the concept in any form for any purpose in any form, we take a great risk, given the nature of man. However it will be difficult to resist given the fact that it can be presented as an attractive package to the masses. I believe most Americans, perhaps most people want to avoid suffering or disability or chronic illness more than than death even though suffering, no matter how terrible, is temporary compared to the permanence of death.
""I don't believe the God of the OT is the God of today"
I can only conclude you are..."
So Grassboots, since you believe that the God of the OT is the God of today, are you in favor of stoning adulterers, as is prescribed by the God of the OT? Are you in favor of me finding a concubine to produce a son, if my wife is unable to?
Even modern Judaism doesn't hold to these archaic OT laws.
Although I am in favor of "An eye for an eye..."
I appreciate your honesty. You don't have to be a scholar, but you should know something of your Bible before you claim to speak for God (for that is how we know the mind of God, not from hearing voices...)
If God does not judge then why do people die? The Bible is full of the discussion of God's wrath in both Old and New Testaments. It really doesn't matter what you or I feel in our experience - it is what His Word says, I would encourage you to read up on it.
Said the proud man, stepping off the curb stone, ignoring the oncoming bus.
Looks like you've never heard of the Slippery Slope, or something called i-n-c-r-e-m-e-n-t-a-l-i-s-m.
"According to the Falwell/Robertson line, which grassboots apes so well, 9/11 was America's fault for falling into the sewer by allowing the unborn to be aborted."
And look at Falwell's current state of health. Perhaps this is God's justice on this blowhard proclaiming to know the works and reasoning of the omnipotent? Pride goeth before the fall of man.
Hear! Hear! (or is that Here! Here!)
Pardon me for intruding upon your space.
Is your reply to me a contrivance for not being able to comprehend what I wrote? Or is your reply part of an unforgiving, intolerant perfectionism?
How about simply reading what I wrote?
The "old testament" G-d is the only G-d there is, was, or ever will be! HaShem yiqqom 'et-dam haneqiyim!
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