The eugenic philosophy is alive in our culture
The Vatican’s newspaper has published an article by historian Lucetta Scaraffia concerning the translation into Italian for the first time of the 1920 book by Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, titled, Allowing the destruction of life unworthy of life.
The article, “If Life is ‘unworthy of being lived” (see below) offers an historical evaluation of the importance of the book and then it concludes that the basic ideology of the book - i.e. eugenics, or in other words, the elimination of people who are genetically “inferior” or mentally ill - is alive and well in this culture.
Many people wrongly suggest that this book was a result of the Nazi movement in order to minimize the negative reality of the concepts that are promoted in it. Binding and Hoche published this book in 1920, before the founding of the Nazi movement.
We know that the book sold well and the ideology within this book strongly influenced the Nazi movement towards its destructive ideology: but the book is not a Nazi text but rather a text that influenced Nazi thought. In fact, Alfred Hoche rejected the Nazi party.
The book was based on the concepts that it is compassionate to kill people who are “suffering” and that it would cleanse society to kill people who are genetically inferior.
I have read the English translation of this book several times.
This book is proof that modern day social Darwinism leads to a belief that some human lives are not equal to other human lives, and that killing these people is necessary for the health and welfare of society and is a means of compassionately “dealing with” people who “live lives unworthy of life.”
People who question the statement that eugenics is alive in well in our society only need to read the writings of philosopher Peter Singer.
For the longest time people have written critical comments about Singer’s philosophy without recognizing that his philosophical principles have now become the primary philosophy of our time.
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