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Who Won the War?
from the Editor's Desk
A detailed memorandum from the Ministry of Justice explained the government's aim to authorize physicians to end the sufferings of incurable patients. Although it lacked the force of law, the memorandum proposed that, "it shall be made possible for physicians to end the tortures of incurable patients, upon request, in the interests of true humanity."
"Incurability" would be determined not only by the attending physician, but also by two official doctors who would carefully trace the history of the case and personally examine the patient.
The Ministry of Justice insisted that "euthanasia" shall be permissible only if the accredited attending physican is backed by two experts. A guarantee is given that no life still valuable to the State will be wantonly destroyed.
This scenario was not taken from a newspaper in Oregon where physician-assisted euthanasia (or suicide) was recently approved by the voters. Nor was it connected to the sinister dealings of Michigan's "Dr. Death," Jack Kevorkian.
The Associated Press report appeared in the Oct. 8, 1933, edition of the New York Times. It described the initial plans of Nazi Germany to begin the systematic extermination of "incurable" patients. This "humane" plan eventually led to the wholesale slaughter of thousands of sick, elderly and crippled Germans and ultimately paved the way for Adolph Hitler's "final solution," the murder of 6 million people in Nazi concentration camps.
Contrary to popular belief, the Catholic Church was quick to respond to the 1933 memorandum. "The Catholic faith binds the conscience of its followers not to accept this method of shortening the sufferings of incurables who are tormented by pain," read an editorial in the Catholic newspaper Germania.
The Luthern Church also spoke out, stating that human life is regarded as something that God alone can take.
At a recent gathering of the Brent Society in Annandale, Virginia State Delegates Bob Marshall and Dick Black compared the pro-death environment in American society today with the one that existed in Nazi Germany during the 1930s.
The delegates spoke specifically about the case of Hugh Finn, a 44-year old former television sportscaster from Louisville, who was involved in a tragic car accident in 1995 which left him in a "persistent vegetative state." Finn died Oct. 9 in a Manassas nursing home eight days after his feeding and hydration tubes were removed.
The Finn case "puts things in perspective," said Black. "There are some truly evil things taking place in this world."
Marshall said after viewing the film "Saving Private Ryan" this summer, he thought to himself, "America may have won the battles, but the Nazis won the war.
"You can no longer assume an individual's moral compass," he said. "Starvation of an individual is now a debatable issue. We couldn't even talk about it 30 years ago."
Although Pope John Paul II did not mention the Finn case by name, he recently encouraged a group of bishops from California to continue pointing out "the morally objectionable nature" of campaigns to legalize physician-assisted suicide.
"Euthanasia and suicide are grave violations of God's law," the pope said. "Their legalization introduces a direct threat to the persons least capable of defending themselves."
Bishops, the pope said, must help people clarify "the substantive moral difference between discontinuing medical procedures that may be burdensome, dangerous or disproportionate to the expected outcome, and taking away the ordinary means of preserving life, such as feeding, hydration and normal medical care.
"The omission of nutrition and hydration intended
to cause a patient's death must be rejected." - M.F.F.
Copyright ©1998 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 23, No 41;
dated Oct 15, 1998, on page 4.
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