Transcript BLOG Murder or Mercy KWB - The Grange School Blogs

Murder or Mercy?
Obj: To explore the reasons
against the legalisation of
euthanasia.
The Hippocratic oath
The Hippocratic Oath is
an oath historically taken
by doctors swearing to
practice medicine
honestly and ethically. It
is believed to have come
from Hippocrates (an
ancient Greek physician),
who is often regarded as
the father of western
medicine.
The original hippocratic oath…
• I will follow that system of regimen which,
according to my ability and judgement, I
consider for the benefit of my patients,
and abstain from whatever is harmful and
mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine
to any one if asked, nor suggest any such
counsel; and in like manner I will not give
to a woman a pessary to produce abortion.
With purity and with holiness I will pass
my life and practice my Art.
What if …Euthanasia was
made legal?
Doctors would
have too much
power
Relatives would
pressurise
people to die
Life would lose
its’ value
People with no
family could
have their lives
ended easily
Anyone not
completely
healthy might
be pushed into
it
People would
make the
decision while
still in shock
In shock?
• A promising rugby player who
was paralysed in a training
ground accident became the
youngest ever British person to
die by using an assisted suicide
clinic.
• Daniel James, 23, travelled to
Switzerland with his parents to
die – 18 months after he lost
the use of his body from the
chest down when a scrum
collapsed on top of him during a
practice session in March
2007.
• Nazi propaganda
contrasting how far 5.50
Reichsmark will go.
The cost of feeding one
person with a hereditary
disease for one day is the
same as it would cost to
feed an entire family of
healthy Germans.
Nazi propaganda : "This person
suffering from hereditary
defects costs the community
60,000 Reichsmark during his
lifetime. Fellow German, that
is your money, too."
• If we look back to German society of the
twenties and thirties, we find a civilized culture
not so unlike our own. As a nation, Germans were
like us – intelligent, aware human beings.
• Gradually Germans were convinced that
euthanasia was a good option for society to help
people have a gentle and easy death. However,
the Nazis had their own ideas about who should
be given euthanasia. They began selecting people
who they thought were a ‘burden’ to society and a
‘disgrace’ to Germany.
• “If Germany was to get a million children a year
and was to remove 700-800,000 of the weakest
people, then the final result might even be an
increase in strength.” Hitler
The Nazi euthanasia program, code-named "OperationT4," set out to eliminate "life unworthy of life."
• Buses used to
transport patients
to Hadamar
euthanasia centre.
The windows were
painted to prevent
people from seeing
those inside.
• Due to the increasing
propaganda in
Germany, many
parents of disabled
children felt
pressured because in
the streets they
were subject to
abuse.
• German hospitals
began to deprive
disabled children of
heat and food slowly starving the
disabled children in
their care until they
died of "natural
causes."
• They believed that
they were doing a
service to Germany
by eliminating these
drains on public
taxes.
• Euthanasia was given to the
physically and mentally
handicapped – the deaf and
blind, people who had had
strokes or heart-attacks or
simply people who had
depression.
• The benefits to society would be
great, they said, as money
previously devoted to the care
of those with "meaningless lives"
would be given to the healthy
who could reproduce and build a
strong Germany.
• More than 400,000 people were
sterilized against their will while
70,000 were killed.