What the nazis built on

Cardinal O'Brien's open letter to Gordon Brown has been widely reported. He has compared the HFE Bill to the atrocities of the Nazis. (See: Embryo bill like Nazi atrocities, says Cardinal)

In September, I wrote about an essay by Malcolm Muggeridge in which he pointed out that the euthanasia programme in Germany was initiated by medical professionals before the Nazi party had risen to power. (See: "The life thou gavest, Lord, we've ended") The book entitled The Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life was published by Alfred Hoche and Karl Binding in 1920.

Many people start shrieking and wailing when the "N word" is used in relation to "culture of death" policies. It may be helpful to point out that the euthanasia of the disabled was already in place well before Hitler and the nazis rose to power. The medical establishment had paved the way for the gross atrocities of the National Socialists.

In the same way today, our morally bankrupt approach to human life leaves the way open in principle to any number of atrocities. The present government and the secularists who have promoted the destruction of human embryos and associated horrors may not be nazis themselves; but they have provided an open door to further assaults against human life. We cannot predict what these may be.

It is chilling to think that the precursors of the nazis were relatively moderate by comparison with the experimentation allowed by the HFE bill.

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