Euthanasia vs. Nazi's Context of Euthanasia

“Euthanasia Program” from the Holocaust Encyclopedia acknowledges the difference between “euthanasia” and what the Nazi’s context of “euthanasia” actually represented. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the definition for euthanasia (also known as mercy killing) is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy. For the Germans they implemented a euthanasia program to eliminate the mentally and physically disabled individuals living in institutions throughout Germany and adjoined territories. Hitler deemed them as “life unworthy of life”. The Germans began by targeting disabled children in 1939. With a list that was reported by physicians, nurses, and midwives the health authorities encouraged the parents to admit their children to one of the clinics. Once the children were admitted to the pediatric clinics the staff would murder them by medication overdoses or starvation. Hitler then moved on to the killing of young adults and adults. Hitler used a questionnaire to identify who was suffering from mental or physical disabilities and who had been living in an institution for more than 5 years. Once the questionnaires were evaluated by medical experts, patients were removed from either their homes or institutions to be “euthanized” by gas chambers disguised as shower facilities. This went on from January 1940 to August 1941. From there Hitler continued his killings. He had German medical professionals and healthcare workers employ drug overdoses and starvation in institutions throughout the Germany. This went on until the end of World War II. Historians estimated that over 200,000 individual’s lives were taken by this Nazi’s form of euthanasia. Hitler’s euthanasia program was an intro to his genocidal tendencies that extended to the destruction of what he deemed unfit, like the Jews and Gypsies. Death by drug overdoses, starvation, and gas chambers does