Bioethics of Eugenics

Subject: Science

Grade Levels: 9 through 12

Objectives:

• For students to consider and discuss the ethical aspects of Nazi racial ideology, including sterilization, marriage prohibitions, and euthanasia.

Sunshine State Standards:

• Grades 9-12
  • SS.C.2.4.3

View all Sunshine State Standards

Background:

Nazis viewed several groups as racially inferior: Jews, Africans, the disabled, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others. After new German laws were adopted between 1933 and 1935, 500 children of African heritage, many of Germany's 30,000 Gypsies, and up to 350,000 disabled individuals were involuntarily sterilized by surgery or radiation. These people were also prohibited from marrying Germans. Nazis used gas chambers, pills, injection, starvation and other means to systematically kill millions of Poles, disabled, Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and Soviets.

T4 Medical Questionnaire 1
Used for questioning institutionalized patients:

Case no.............................................................. Name of Institution:.............................in:.................. First and family name of patient:................maiden name:......... Date of birth:.............City:......................District:....... Last Residence:.......................................District:....... Unmarr., marr., wid., div.:.....Relig:.....Race*......Natlty:......... Address of nearest relative:.......................................... Regular visits and by whom (address):................................. Guardian or Care-Giver (name, address):............................... Cost-bearer:...................How long in this inst.:................ In other Institutions; when and how long:............................. How long sick:...........From where and when transferred:............. Twin yes/no..............Mentally ill blood relatives:................ Diagnosis:............................................................ Primary symptoms:..................................................... Mainly bedridden? yes/no....Very restless yes/no....Confined yes/no... Incurable phys. illness: yes/no:.......War casualty: yes/no........... For schizophrenia: Recent case......Final stage.....good remission.... For retardation: Debility:..........Imbecile:.......Idiot:............ For epilepsy: Psych. changes........Average freq. of attacks.......... For senile disorders: Very confused..................Soils self....... Therapy (Insulin, Cardiazol, Malaria, Salvarsan, etc.): Lasting effects: yes/no.... Referred on the basis of 51, 42b Crim. Code, etc.........By......... Crime:............Earlier criminal acts:.................... Type of Occupation: (Most exact description of work and productivity, e.g. Fieldwork, does not do much.--Locksmith's shop, good skilled worker.--No vague answers, such as housework, rather precise: cleaning room; etc.. Always indicate also, whether constantly, frequently or only occasionally occupied)................................................ Release expected soon:................................................ Remarks:.............................................................. Do not mark in this Space. ..................................... ..................................... ..................................... Place, Date...................................... Signature of medical director or his representative)

*German or related blood (German-blooded), Jew, Jewish Mischling (half-breed) 1st or 2nd degree, Negro (Mischling), Gypsy (Mischling), etc. Translated in Robert J. Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (New York, 1986), pp. 68-69.

Procedure:

1. Discuss multiple perspectives of the following questions related to the right of parenthood:
   • Is it ethical (moral, right, good, fair) to prevent any person from becoming a parent? If so, under what conditions? (Race, sexual orientation, genetic disease/health, age, criminal history) Under those conditions, should sterilization be compulsory? Are human rights and privacy rights violated when the right to parenthood is denied? Should nations or states have the right to enact laws regarding compulsory sterilization?
2. Investigate Federal law, the constitution, and United Nations human rights declarations related to the right to reproduce.
3. Consider the following questions regarding euthanasia:
   • Is euthanasia (mercy killing) or the death penalty (capital punishment) ever ethical?
   • If so, under what conditions?
   • Should euthanasia ever be compulsory?
   • For the protection of society in the case of deadly infectious disease, what would be acceptable alternatives to euthanasia?
4. Investigate Federal and state law, the constitution, and United Nations human rights declarations related to euthanasia and the death penalty.
5. Develop a code of ethics regarding reproductive rights, euthanasia, and the death penalty.
6. Consider the opposite extremes, made possible by biotechnology: are there limits to the resources that society should allocate to saving lives and assisting infertile individuals in becoming parents?

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida © 2005.