| NAZI EUTHANASIA GREW OUT OF THE FANTASY THAT GERMANY WAS AN ORGANISM WITH AN IMMUNE SYSTEM THAT DESTROYS USELESS CELLS |
- From: Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life: Its Measure and Form (1920). Alfred Hoche and Karl Binding: “Viewed from the standpoint of a higher state morality, it cannot be doubted that the endeavor to sustain worthless life at all costs has been taken to excess. We view the state as an organism with its own laws and requirements. Like any self-contained human body, this organism, as we doctors know, abandons and rejects individual parts which have become worthless or damaging.”
- Hoche took steps towards the justification of compulsory euthanasia. In 1915 he wrote of the end of atomistic individualism, and of the transformation of the nation into an organism of a higher order. He argued that the Volk was an organism of a higher order with rights above those of the individual.
- By 1920, Hoche and Binding were arguing that doctors were responsible for the welfare of the totality of the social organism and that exterminating the lives of harmful or useless members was necessary. Many agreed that war casualties and the nation's lack of resources, food & Lebensraum justified euthanasia. It was claimed that it was wrong to sustain worthless lives of the sick and deranged, while worthwhile lives of starving children were being lost.
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