From September 1, 1939 to September 1, 1941 the Nazis exterminated about 33% of their "mental defectives." Source. That's an average of 16.5% annually.
In 2000 we starved and dehydrated 11% of our "vegetables" to death. In 2001 we starved and dehydrated 11.4% of our "vegetables" to death. Source. I don't have figures for the "vegetables" we exterminated using other methods. In light of the facts that the percentage was rising each year up to the last year for which we have data, and in the years since then legislation has shifted farther toward exterminating "vegetables," I think it's a safe bet that the percentage has gone up some. Add to that the fact that starvation/dehydration is not the only method we use to exterminate "vegetables" and you have to wonder how many we exterminated last year. I wonder how close we are to the 16.5% extermination rate of the Nazis. Have we passed them yet?
Good observation!
The only difference between then and now is that the Germans were a lot more candid and honest about their intentions. Our own Nazis say "choice" when they mean killing babies, and "changing the course of treatment" when they mean dehydrating / starving grandma to death.
Translation: "60,000 Reichsmarks is what this person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money, too..."
( The Third Sermon, preached in the Church of St. Lambert's on August 3rd, 1941, in which the Bishop attacks the Nazi practice of euthanasia and condemns the ‘mercy killings’ taking place in his own diocese. Note: Some words were printed in boldface by this website.)
Excerpt:
>>For the past several months it has been reported that, on instructions from Berlin, patients who have been suffering for a long time from apparently incurable diseases have been forcibly removed from homes and clinics. Their relatives are later informed that the patient has died, that the body has been cremated and that the ashes may be claimed. There is little doubt that these numerous cases of unexpected death in the case of the insane are not natural, but often deliberately caused, and result from the belief that it is lawful to take away life which is unworthy of being lived.
>>This ghastly doctrine tries to justify the murder of blameless men and would seek to give legal sanction to the forcible killing of invalids, cripples, the incurable and the incapacitated. I have discovered that the practice here in Westphalia is to compile lists of such patients who are to be removed elsewhere as ‘unproductive citizens,’ and after a period of time put to death.
As a direct result of this sermon, Hitler suspended the gassings of the Aktion T4 euthanasia program three weeks later. However, T4 quietly continued to kill "defective" patients with drugs and starvation.
According to one source, Hans and Sophie Scholl quoted one of Bishop Galen's homilies in a White Rose leaflet.