Compassionate Killing: Lessons Learned From Nurses in the Nazi Era

Hartheim Euthanasia Centre, Nazi Germany

We posted this documentary in the article on the barbarism of Bill C-7, but thought it important enough to stand on its own. Fascinating, if sombre and evocative, how subtly those dedicated to healing – in this case, nurses, who were tasked with much of the actual hands-on dirty work – can devolve into killers, coerced, even imperceptibly, by the culture, environment, authority and, not least, propaganda. It was all about ‘Life unworthy of life’, or, put another way, ‘life without value’, which is a contradiction in terms.

We said, ‘never again’, but it’s already happening again, before our very noses, ears and eyes, as it did in Germany – and good men did nothing, as so many do nothing now. The Harvard doctor in the film makes the error that it was only murder because the patients – I mean victims – were ‘unwilling’. But it’s still murder, even if someone wants to die. And does anyone really want to die? God will take us to Himself in His own good time, and we shouldn’t be hurried there by those whose first principle of conduct is do no harm: