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In Germany, it started with this: During the same period that Hitler decreed the Rhineland sterilizations, a German medical economist pointed out, in an article entitled 'The Fight Against Degeneration,' that the care of a deaf-mute or cripple cost 6 marks a day, that of a reform school inmate 4.85 marks, and that of a mentally ill or deficient person 4.50 marks. The average earnings of a laborer, on the other hand, were only 2.50 marks, and those of a civil servant 4 marks daily. (The exchange rate at the time was about forty cents -- 2.50 marks to the dollar.) The economist lamented: 'The state spends far more for the existence of these actually worthless compatriots than for the salary of a healthy man, who must bring up a healthy family,' and hinted that it was too bad that a more radical program than sterilization could not be employed. Then we had this: ADOLF HITLER Berlin, 1 September 1939 Reichsleiter Bouhler andDr. med. Brandt are instructed to broaden the powers of physicians designated by name, who will decide whether those who have - as far as can be humanly determined - incurable illnesses can, after the most careful evaluation, be granted a mercy death. /signed/ Adolf Hitler I will be the FIRST one to say that when the above actions took place, "reasonable" people never thought it would lead to death camps. I am sure that "reasonable" people right now think it is insane to even begin to compare Terri's situation to the horrors of WW II. I accept that. I honestly do. What IS relevant is the T-4 program. The climate created for Hitler's T-4 program and the events that lead up to the T-4 program are very similar to the euthenasia movement. Of the number of people killed in the T4 and the 14f13 projects, the following statistics are usually given: adult mental patients from institutions, 80,000 to 100,000; children in institutions, 5,000; special action against Jews in institutions, 1,000; concentration camp inmates transported to killing centers (14f13), 20,000 (Klee estimated that at the end of 1941, some 93,521 `beds' had been emptied for other uses [70,000 patients gassed, plus over 20,000 dead through medication] - in other words approximately one-third of the places for the mentally ill.) But these figures may well be too low; twice these numbers of people may have perished. The fact is that we do not know and shall probably never know. Elements of deception, imposed chaos, and the destruction of many records make anything like an accurate estimate impossible.The same is true concerning the total number of people murdered at specific killing centers. Hartheim victims of both ordinary `euthanasia' and 14f13 are variously estimated from 20,000 (by Dr. Georg Renno, Lonauer's successor as director), to 400,000 (by Franz Ziereis, the former commandant of Mauthausen, on his deathbed); 30,000 is believed to be the best estimate. While these figures may seem unimpressive when placed next to the millions killed in the Final Solution, they represent the murder of shockingly large numbers of peopleall in places characterized as hospitals." (The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. London: Papermac, 1986 (Reprinted 1990) p. 142). Then there is this: The choice of terminology for the program is consistent with the Nazis' penchant for euphemisms. Euthanasia typically means "mercy killing". In the 1990's in the United States and other western nations, it has become synonymous with "physician-assisted suicide." We need to be very careful. I want to have more hope and belief in America than to believe we would EVER come to the place illistrated above, but when so many are already convinced that the word mercy would be hitched to the word killing, it worries me. There are already groups working hard to convince people that these things never happened. What happens when both of these worlds collide? I always connected the word mercy with life. In Schindler's List, Mr Schindler had a converstaion with a man where he pointed out that true power came from offering mercy, not death..................I find these words profound in this hour.........