Cemetery at Hadamar (a euthanasia killing centre) April 1945 © National Archives and Records Administration - Washington |
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 Nitza Spiro and Dr Paul Darke - July 18th 2000 at the ICA |
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Let us Celebrate All Disabled People's Conception Particularly Those Who Are Absent |
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The 1933 Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases, proclaimed July 14, forced the sterilisation of all persons who suffered from diseases considered hereditary, such as mental illness, retardation, physical deformity, epilepsy, blindness, deafness and severe alcoholism. Over 500,000 foetuses conceived each year, world-wide, are aborted on the basis that they will be 'disabled'. Although a formal euthanasia law was never passed, over 250,000 disabled people - 'useless eaters' - were given a 'good death' (euthanasia) by the Nazi regime under a policy known as T-4. Abortion, euthanasia, genetic and neo-natal screening, as well as infanticide, means that it is now less likely than ever that you will survive the label of being conceived as 'different'. Recommended Reading Michael Burleigh, 1994, Death and Deliverance: Euthanasia in Germany 1900-1945, Cambridge. Hugh Gallagher, 1990, By Trust Betrayed: Patients, Physicians and the License to Kill in the Third Reich, New York. Henry Friedlander, 1995, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: from Euthanasia to the Final Solution, North Carolina. Bronwyn Rebekah McFarland-Icke, 1999, Nurses in Nazi Germany: Moral Choices in History, Princeton. Holocaust Sculpture |
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