Yesterday MPs debated assisted dying, and not a single one appeared to know a single thing about its sinister origins, its links to population control or how its close cousin euthanasia was performed by the state on thousands of elderly people to 'save the NHS'.
The push for assisted dying is often framed in terms of compassion, autonomy, and dignity. Advocates claim that it offers terminally ill patients the ability to end their lives on their own terms, free from pain and suffering. However, beneath this seemingly humane surface lies a chilling history and a disturbing set of ideas that should give us all pause for thought.
Nazi Origins: A Programme of Death
The roots of assisted dying can be traced back to one of the darkest chapters in human history: Nazi Germany. It was in 1939 when a father in Leipzig petitioned Adolf Hitler to end the life of his severely disabled daughter, believing it to be an 'act of mercy'. Hitler’s personal physician, Karl Brandt, was dispatched to authorise the death. This single case sparked the infamous Nazi Aktion T4 euthanasia programme, where the Nazi regime systematically murdered at least 70,000 people with disabilities under the guise of “mercy killing.”
As historian Hugh Gallagher outlines in his book By Trust Betrayed, this programme grew as other families sent similar requests to Hitler, creating a terrifying precedent for state-sanctioned death.
What started as an appeal for compassion quickly became a tool for social engineering. The Nazis did not stop at the disabled. The programme soon expanded to include anyone deemed "unworthy of life," from the elderly to the mentally ill. It is believed that the term "useless eaters" came from the programme's documentation. This systematic killing was a grotesque abuse of medical ethics, one that led to the deaths of millions during the Holocaust.
Population Control: Left-Wing Academia’s Disturbing Theory
The drive to promote assisted dying today can also find roots in 1960s academic theories of overpopulation. Paul Ehrlich, a prominent figure in this movement, advocated for extreme measures to reduce population growth. In his infamous book The Population Bomb, Ehrlich argued that the world was headed for catastrophe due to overpopulation and that drastic action was needed.
Among his proposed solutions were chilling policies such as the addition of temporary sterilants to the water supply, a punitive tax on families with more than one child, and even prenatal screening to allow for the selective abortion of female children. Ehrlich’s ideas were profoundly anti-human, treating people as a problem to be solved rather than individuals with intrinsic worth.
The logic of population control is not far removed from the logic of assisted dying. Both ideologies see human life as something to be managed, controlled, and even eliminated when it becomes inconvenient. These dangerous ideas continue to find new expression in modern debates over euthanasia, where the vulnerable—be they elderly, disabled, or suffering from mental illness—are at risk of being pressured into ending their own lives.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw the chilling consequences of this mindset in real-time. Thousands of elderly and vulnerable people were effectively euthanised to “save the NHS.” Millions were deceived into signing Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders, which in practice became “Do Not Treat” (DNT) directives. Care home residents and hospital patients were left to die, often from conditions entirely unrelated to the virus.
Worse still, reports have surfaced suggesting that many were given fatal overdoses of drugs like Midazolam and Morphine. These drugs, intended to alleviate pain, were administered in doses that hastened death. This was not compassion; it was a cold, utilitarian calculus aimed at freeing up hospital beds and reducing the strain on healthcare resources.
A Slippery Slope to Dehumanisation
As history shows us, the shift from “mercy killing” to state-sponsored euthanasia is frighteningly easy. Assisted dying is not simply about offering individuals control over their deaths. It opens the door to the devaluation of human life and the potential for abuse, especially among the most vulnerable in society. When life is treated as disposable, when the state has a hand in determining who lives and who dies, we risk repeating the horrors of the past.
The call for assisted dying may be framed in terms of dignity and compassion, but its roots lie in some of the most dangerous ideologies of the last century. We must not allow this thin veil of empathy to obscure the very real dangers that assisted dying poses to society.
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