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“Euthanasia”: a confusing term, abused under the Nazi regime and misused in present end-of-life debate

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Abstract

Background

Legal provisions in The Netherlands and Belgium currently allow physicians to actively end a patient's life at his or her request under certain conditions. The term that is used for this is “euthanasia.”

Discussion

The same term, “euthanasia,” was used in Germany during the Nazi regime for a program of cleansing the “German nation” in which untold thousands of persons were denied human empathy or medical care and were thereby condemned to death. The medical profession played a leading role in the planning, administration, and supervision of this “euthanasia” program, with a large proportion of German physicians proactively shirking all moral responsibility and ultimately paving the way for the Holocaust.

Conclusion

The term “euthanasia” was so abused during the Nazi regime as a camouflage word for murder of selected subpopulations with the willing participation of physicians, we believe that, regardless of the benevolent goals of current euthanasia practices, for historical reasons the term “euthanasia” must not be used with regards to current end-of-life care.

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Acknowledgements

A. Karenberg, MD, PhD, Cologne, and R. Hoff, MD, Utrecht, reviewed early versions of the manuscript; their help is gratefully acknowledged. This article is based on the presentation “Euthanasia—History and Definition” by A. Michalsen, given at the 18th Annual Congress of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, Amsterdam, September, 2005.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Überlingen Hospital, Härlenweg 1, 88662, Überlingen/See, Germany

    Andrej Michalsen

  2. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Klinikum Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Erlanger Strasse 101, 07747, Jena, Germany

    Konrad Reinhart

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  1. Andrej Michalsen
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Correspondence to Andrej Michalsen.

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Michalsen, A., Reinhart, K. “Euthanasia”: a confusing term, abused under the Nazi regime and misused in present end-of-life debate. Intensive Care Med 32, 1304–1310 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-006-0256-9

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