Charity requires us to believe that most contemporary genetic counselors are not at all motivated by considerations that we would term ‘eugenic.’ However, the founders of the field left no doubt about their motivations, stating them plainly and explicitly, and characterizing them as definitely constituting eugenics. The following material raises more than reasonable doubt that …
Category: euthanasia
Life Unworthy of Life Yesterday and Today, Science, Secularism, and the Sanctity of Life
This foreword is reprinted with permission of the author and may not be copied and re-posted. The foreword originally appears in the translation of Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche’s Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life lifeunworthyoflife.com | Buy on Amazon | Kindle Life Unworthy of Life Yesterday and Today, Science, Secularism, and the …
Eugenicists Shared in Common with the Nazis Concepts of the “Social Body.”
One of the under-appreciated elements of what animated the eugenics mindset was the view that each species could very well be conceived of as a ‘body’ of sort. A different level of moral calculation could be applied to the ‘social organism’ or ‘social body’ then the individual. This is no mere invoking of the ‘common …
Mass Extermination and ‘Lethal Chambers’ Widely Considered by Eugenicists in America, England, and Germay
Long before the Nazis implemented the ‘Final Solution,’ American and English eugenicists had talked often of the use of ‘lethal chambers’ to deal with the pressing problem of the ‘unfit.’ You can imagine Hitler’s surprise, when, after acting on precisely what elites in America and England had long been advocating for, he was perceived as …
The Lethal Chamber Proposal, 1930 Letter to Editor by Dr. Richard Berry
A little known fact is that those with a eugenics mindset had been talking about ‘lethal chambers’ and ‘segregation camps’ for a long time before the Nazis actually used them. Here is one example. The Lethal Chamber Proposal To the Editor, Eugenics Review SIR,-I observe in your issue of April 1930, page 6, that you …
Euthanasia AS Eugenics: The Nazi Action T4 project
Euthanasia is often thought of as a separate issue from eugenics, but eugenicists have often seen euthanasia as one obvious method for removing the ‘unfit.’ Due to what Nazi Germany did, those types of discussions faded away–at least, in explicit terms. But what did Nazi Germany actually do? Most people are only aware of the …
The Obstacle of Sentiment and Sentimentalists to Pure Scientific Application
One of the common themes that surfaces in eugenic writings is their annoyance that others do not act on the logical implications of Science. Note that, in the main, they are not taking issue with people who do not agree with their conclusions, but rather those who do agree–but will not act on them. This …
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