POLITICS: Bird Flu and Beyond: Assisted Suicide Instead of Prevention

Fatalities from H5N1 Bird Flu are projected to be 50%, but more to the point, many infected survivors will suffer chronic debilitation and disability. Chronic disease already is epidemic world wide, creating a heavy economic burden for most nations. A prevention strategy for animal-to-human diseases was outlined long ago but never supported, although microbiologists and other scientists have been warning world leaders for decades about the dangers. The last attempt to gain international support for prevention failed at the emergency Bird Flu meeting in Ottawa on October 23. On Monday, October 31, Canada's Parliament discussed Bill C-407. This proposed legislation will legalize assisted suicide, specifically targeted to people who are chronically ill. Bill C-407 is scheduled for a second review and vote at the end of November. "Bill C-407 is a direct threat to the lives of the people with disabilities, people with chronic physical and mental pain and other vulnerable Canadians. If Parliament supports this Bill in any form it is placing the lives of vulnerable Canadians at material risk," says Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC). In the USA, Patrick Trueman, Senior Legal Counsel for Family Research Council (FRC) says Supreme Court Judges Justices Souter, Ginsberg, and Stevens have indicated their receptivity to arguments for legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide.





"The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality," wrote Herbert Spencer, a leader of the early eugenics movement. His statement concisely summarizes current public health policies that focus on "personal responsibility in health," but which ignore the fact that this world is rife with disease-causing contamination, pollution, and rampant infectious disease. Equally important, and also ignored, is the fact that no one has any immunity to most modern diseases because they are new mutations.

"Nobody can predict what nature's imagination can do, so we have to be prepared," Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer, told a news conference in Ottawa.

"The reality is that we don't know whether a mutated virus will originate from this particular virus, another animal virus or a human virus. This doesn't change the need for our advance planning and preparation in order to minimize the impact."

Assisted suicide and euthanasia are linked historically to the eugenics movement. Hitler's legislation for concentration camps was based almost verbatim on a 1926 US Supreme Court ruling in support of state eugenics legislation. The last US eugenics laws were taken off the books in the 1970's. Canada too had eugenics laws: compulsory sterilization laws targeted alcoholics, epileptics, the mentally ill, sexually deviant and feeble minded, while provinces denied voting rights to Chinese immigrants, aboriginal peoples, "Hindus," and Japanese, for example.

Eugenics Timeline

* Though they were taken to a much higher extreme, many of Hitler's early racial policies were taken word for word from American eugenics policies. ...Some of the Nazi “racial hygiene laws”, such as the Act for Averting Descendants with Hereditary Diseases, were based on eugenic theory and policy that was popular in North America.
* In the 1860s in British Colombia, first, Chinese immigrants and aboriginal peoples, and later, "Hindus" and Japanese were * denied the right to vote.
* 1931 At this time, over thirty American states, as well as parts of Canada, have compulsory sterilization laws in place. People diagnosed as alcoholic, epileptic, mentally ill, sexually deviant or feeble minded where potential candidates.
* An independent (Canadian) MP named A.W. Neill was something of a star in these debates. In 1936 he argued against Japanese enfranchisement, saying a petition from the affected community was "sob stuff" and "claptrap," and "Canada must remain white."
* 1948: The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed: "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, birth or other status;" and "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family."

Also see:
Eugenics and the new genetics.Eugenics
Euge nics History
The Joseph and Rose Kennedy Institute of Ethics

Eugenics theory claims that some people are genetically superior, and others are genetically inferior. According to eugenicists, genetically inferior people are susceptible to disease, bad habits, and bad characters. Genetically superior people, say eugenicists, are naturally immune, smarter, more capable, and creative, and have better characters. The eugenics movement promotes population control to manage the human herd by removing the genetically inferior, promoting breeding between genetically superior specimens, and supporting genetically superior individuals in positions of political power. Notably, genetically superior people are identifiable primarily by their wealth.

Whatever its intent, Bill C-407 supports eugenics theory and involuntary "assisted suicide." There are two categories of "assisted suicide," voluntary and forced, and several types of "assistance."

Categories of assisted suicide and euthanasia:

Voluntary euthanasia: The patient requests assisted suicide to avoid the pain and/or reduced quality of life resulting from chronic disease, for example.

Involuntary euthanasia: Killing a person who has not explicitly expressed a wish to die, but who might be a burden on society due to disability or debilitation, for example.

Types of assisted suicide and euthanasia:

Physician-assisted suicide: When a doctor gives a patient the information and means (like pills) to commit suicide.

Passive euthanasia: Withholding or taking away vaccines, drugs, or treatments needed to live, or a feeding tube or life support, so the person dies as a result.

Active euthanasia: Killing people by injecting them with a lethal dose of drugs, for example.


Bill C-407 opens the door to all types of assisted suicide, according to Alex Schadenberg, Executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC). He says, "This bill is a serious attack on vulnerable Canadians, including people with disabilities, the chronic sufferers of physical or mental pain, the frail elderly and the poor. These people need to be protected." While Bill C-407 purports to require the patient's voluntary request for assisted suicide, Schadenberg outlines the Bill's flaws, and shows how it leaves the door wide open for involuntary or forced euthanasia:

Bill C-407 Legalizes All Types of Assisted Suicide

Schadenberg points out that Bill C-407:

• Legalizes euthanasia and assisted suicide for people suffering chronic physical and mental pain. Chronic physical and mental pain can be treated.

• Does not require that a person at least try effective treatments for their chronic physical or mental pain. It states that a person qualifies for euthanasia even if they have refused to try effective treatments

• Legalizes euthanasia and assisted suicide for people who "appear to be lucid" and doesn’t define what appear to be lucid means.

• Allows anyone to euthanize or assist the suicide of a person, so long as they are "assisted by a medical practitioner"

Scientists have been recommending prevention strategies for some time, which provide an alternative to assisted suicide and the return to eugenics policies. They haven't quit yet, although it's down to the wire.

14 September 2004: The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to put in place preventive measures and enhance preparedness ready for the possible re-emergence of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian influenza A (H5N1) in humans. ...avian influenza A(H5N1), hit at least nine countries in Asia in early 2004. The virus has the potential to jump from birds to humans. Most countries, however, lack comprehensive programmes to prevent animal-to-human transmission of zoonotic diseases.

***

May 26, 2005 (CIDRAP News) Summary – The British magazine Nature trained a floodlight on the threat of an influenza pandemic today with a collection of 10 articles that explore the danger and possible remedies and demand a more serious global response.

May 26 Nature, with links to articles and commentaries on bird flu

'Controlling avian flu at the source'
Global agricultural authorities should harmonize with the public-health sector to ensure the exchange of flu virus samples, and establish a single international standard for vaccines that could reduce viral loads below the transmissible level, say Robert Webster and Diane Hulse.

Our leaders routinely dismiss prevention strategy recommendations, and few options remain - except assisted suicide/euthanasia. The economic burdens created by the chronic disease epidemic already threaten to bankrupt most nations. Supporting chronically ill survivors of the bird flu pandemic will break the camel's back. And as Dr. David Butler-Jones said, bird flu is not the only problem, "The reality is that we don't know whether a mutated virus will originate from this particular virus, another animal virus or a human virus. This doesn't change the need for our advance planning and preparation in order to minimize the impact."

The threat to humanity is right next door

...the apocalyptic eventuality that keeps some health experts awake at night is a global human flu pandemic. This would make last year’s tsunami look like a storm in a teacup. Billions infected. Tens of millions dead. Mass panic. Mass chaos. Hospitals overloaded. Food stocks dwindling. The global economy in a wreck as trade drops. Communities closing doors to outsiders. The army taking over?. Get the picture?

Pundits say Bill C-407 is a trial balloon, and unlikely to pass. However, writes one critic, "It’s so glaringly bad that the next effort will look humane by comparison."

The next effort will look humane by comparison

Believe it or not, there’s something worse than the worst euthanasia legislation in the world. ...The worst euthanasia legislation is the one that’s currently before Parliament. Bill C-407 would provide practical carte blanche to kill anyone, anytime, for any reason. ...Bill C-407 is so bad that even the federal justice minister is opposed to it. One hopes and prays that members of Parliament will have no difficulty seeing this monstrosity for what it is and reject it without hesitation. ...Bill C-407 does, however, have one thing going for it. The carnage it would bring about is so obvious that the only way it could be supported is through hopeless naivete or wilful callousness. ...On the other hand, once it’s defeated, more euthanasia legislation will eventually be introduced, as surely as day follows night, and the next bill probably won’t be so transparently deficient. Indeed, Bill C-407 might almost be described as a backdoor attempt to introduce euthanasia in Canada. It’s so glaringly bad that the next effort will look humane by comparison.

Whatever the rest of the world may do about bird flu, chronic disease, and other invisible epidemics, Canada, as a member in good standing of the Corporate State of North America, has chosen assisted suicide/euthanasia as the preferred solution. In the absence of an educated public outcry, it's just a matter of time before the enabling legislation is passed.

I can not believe that this type of options will be taken into consideration and even law to help with the people's need in case of a major outbreak.

I can imagine that if a family get sick it will be not body to take care of them because about everybody will be sick.

This are consequences that we don't think about it or just avoid talking about it.

I would not be surprised that given the high probabilities of a major out brake countries will opt for assisted suicide.

I wonder if the US will even have this choice already in the table but waiting for the right time to give it to the public.

perhaps that time will come when people are so desperate that it will sound almost like a blessing.

Very sad, very sad.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with allowing people suffering from some medical condition that is killing them--and there is no hope of remission or a cure--from committing suicide. One of our western states currently has such a law. BTW, I don't see any tie-in to Avian Flu whatsoever.

[edit on 3-11-2005 by Astronomer68]

I think this is the tie-in:

Fatalities from H5N1 Bird Flu are projected to be 50%, but more to the point, many infected survivors will suffer chronic debilitation and disability.

Fifty percent fatalities? Whoa! Add to that survivirs with chronic disabilities, who will be left?

Hello, Captain Tripps..

Originally posted by Astronomer68
I see absolutely nothing wrong with allowing people suffering from some medical condition that is killing them--and there is no hope of remission or a cure--from committing suicide. One of our western states currently has such a law. BTW, I don't see any tie-in to Avian Flu whatsoever.

I couldn't agree more! Get the heck outta my life people! I didn't see anything in this article about murdering people. Did you?

marg - As you say, "perhaps that time will come when people are so desperate that it will sound almost like a blessing." ...You're right - Without prevention being funded or covered by insurance, people are in a Catch-22.

jsobecky - You ask, "Who will be left?" Answer: The wealthy elite, and their chosen attendants.

Originally posted by deluded

Originally posted by Astronomer68
I see absolutely nothing wrong with allowing people suffering from some medical condition that is killing them--and there is no hope of remission or a cure--from committing suicide.

I couldn't agree more! Get the heck outta my life people! I didn't see anything in this article about murdering people. Did you?

Astronomere - one problem is that very often cures and treatments DO exist - but may be financially inaccessible, or insurance didn't cover early diagnosis and preventive treatments. Kind of a set up.


Deluded - it all seems to come down to what you call murder. Critics of the Bill say it can and will be used to get rid of people, before their time.

"Bill C-407 is a direct threat to the lives of the people with disabilities, people with chronic physical and mental pain and other vulnerable Canadians. If Parliament supports this Bill in any form it is placing the lives of vulnerable Canadians at material risk."


Critics also recognize the similarities between new assisted suicide laws and the last century's eugenics laws that led to Hitler's concentration camps 'program.'

"(Bill C-407) to allow assisted suicide would create a slippery slope that could lead to the kind of eugenics program that took place in Nazi Germany,..."


Maybe most important:

Such laws also can be used for political purpose.



.

Originally posted by Astronomer68
One of our western states currently has such a law. BTW, I don't see any tie-in to Avian Flu whatsoever.

Oregon has such a law on the books. It is only a matter of time before California goes that route as well IMHO.

One of the curses of our advanced medical system is the ability to keep people alive for quite sometime even if they have no hope of a meaningfull recovery.

I am fully supportive of assisten suicide laws such as Oregons. As long as its a voulentary act (Or with parental approval). In some cases, I beleive that Texas has a law on the books that allows a patient to be taken off life support by doctors over the parents wishes if certain strict criteria is met. THis may sound crass, but becuase there is not a $$$$$ component to futile medicine in most cases why would not people continue to beat a dead horse so to speak. THe life at all costs or for life's sake attitute has to change before the healthcare system collapses.

Originally posted by FredT

One of the curses of our advanced medical system is the ability to keep people alive for quite sometime even if they have no hope of a meaningfull recovery.

IMO - that is a myth. Pure spin. Most people cannot afford the cost of diagnosis, never mind the wonders of modern scientific miracle cures.

Insurance does not cover early diagnosis or preventive treatments for chronic disease. People aren't living longer - they're just getting levelled by so-called "age related diseases" in their prime instead of at 70 or 80.

THe life at all costs or for life's sake attitute has to change before the healthcare system collapses.

As the article above points out, governments will not cover prevention strategies to stop diseases from spreading and mutating.

As things stand, the priority is profit for profit's sake - over people, animals and the health of this planet's ecosystem. It just so happens that human life is on the table, and people now are commonly disabled a good 30 years before retirement age.

The "Freedom 55" retirement savings plan has been renamed for good reason - it's now "Freedom 45" because people are not expected to maintain their health for much longer than that.


.

Regardless of the backlash I may hear because of this, I am a firm believer that Dr. Kevorkian provided a service of compassion. I think legalizing assisted suicide is one of the most profound impacts government can provide. There has to be some sort of psychological counseling, and stringent guidelines,though.However if a person, who suffers from a very painful terminal illness, wishes to end existance,I think it should be allowed. If you have ever seen someone you love die of cancer, you go through many emotions. My mother was a beautiful person before she was sick, and at the end she merely was a shell of her former self.

You cannot imagine how painful it is when someone you love screams in agony, knowing there is no amount of medication you provide, to ease their suffering. People in this much pain writhe in spasms, moan, refuse to eat, lash out in anger, and do not recognize who you even are, the ability to control bodily functions ends. You cannot possibly fathom what it is possibly like to see this unless you go through it firsthand.

You actually pray for god to take them, because you can't bear to see them suffer like this anymore, or the amount of pain you feel when they ask you to do something, and please help them even if means ending their lives. They usually go via dehydration, not cancer. The bodies way of shutting down is no appetite, and no thirst. Most die very painfully, until dehydration sets in, and their bodies finally shut down. I don't know about you, but if this is the future for me, I would like someone to take compassion on me and not let me suffer like this.

Originally posted by soficrow
[IMO - that is a myth. Pure spin. Most people cannot afford the cost of diagnosis, never mind the wonders of modern scientific miracle cures.
.

No myth I see it on a daily basis in the ICU's If treatment is agressive, an ICU can keep people alive even if there is no hope for a meaninfull recover. I have seen this time and time again.

Given a ventallator, anitbiotics, inotropic medication, chemistry replacement etc. you might be surprised

My life is mine to do as I see fit. Quality of life is what I am used to i.e. play football, use my hands, wipe my own arse etc etc. So if I become terminally bed ridden with no dignity (my arse no longer mine to wipe) then what's the point. I am essentially dead as far as my measure of quality of life. If I wish to die with dignity let me.

THIS IS THE MOST OBVIOUS ATTEMPT TO DEPOPULATE THE WORLD I HAVE EVER SEEN! WAKE UP PEOPLE THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS IN FULL FORCE!

Originally posted by FredT

No myth I see it on a daily basis in the ICU's If treatment is agressive, an ICU can keep people alive even if there is no hope for a meaninfull recover. I have seen this time and time again.

Given a ventallator, anitbiotics, inotropic medication, chemistry replacement etc. you might be surprised

I agree that we have the capabilities to extend life in many ways, but at what price.

I imagine that if I have the money I would keep a love one alive by any means, but If I don't have the means to afford such life time care like most Americans I guess Assisted Suicide or just pulling the plugs will be better for me.

Then it comes to the point of who can and who can not afford to keep a family member alive artificially.

If we are going to talk about how Americans feel about ending the life of a love one because he or she is artificially kept alive, we already has heard the American people said so with the case with Teri in Florida.

Now how about long term illnesses resulting from an epidemic, you are still awake and still alive but just dependant on somebody else.

I guess is many issue that will arise with such a bill like the one Bill C-407, the private-members bill proposing to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Originally posted by Solidus Snake
THIS IS THE MOST OBVIOUS ATTEMPT TO DEPOPULATE THE WORLD I HAVE EVER SEEN! WAKE UP PEOPLE THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS IN FULL FORCE!

How is this a bad thing? People are like cockroaches. We wouldn't need to rely on foreign sources if we didn't have too many people that consumed all of ours here. Even on a different scale, you have overcrowded prisons, filled with pedophiles, rapists, murderers, etc...They are there for 30 plus years, what point does that serve?

I dont really know how to respond to this...

suicide should be legal based upon the situation... I have personal knowledge that doctor assisted suicides happen all the time, but are never reported. Doctors are also people, and sometimes they see how much suffering someone is going thru, and help them to end pain... at the patients request of course...

it is a very thin gray line...

should anyone be able to off themselves anytime they want? nada...
people dont always have all the info the need to make a permanent choice like that...

but it would be terrible to see another doctor have legal trouble becuase some nosy nurse decides that she knows better than the doctor and the patient put together.

I don't see this as opening up a "we can't fix you, so you might as well kill yourself" issue... unless it is truly a situation where the best medical science can't provide some relief of suffering to help make life worth living.

Originally posted by LazarusTheLong

I don't see this as opening up a "we can't fix you, so you might as well kill yourself" issue... unless it is truly a situation where the best medical science can't provide some relief of suffering to help make life worth living.

...But Laz - the best medical science is not available to everyone - only the very few who can afford it.

Also, the real problem is insurance policies that disallow early diagnosis and prevention, in favor of late stage intervention when symptoms are acute and life threatening.

...Not to mention the 45 million Americans who don't have insurance. And not that it makes any difference any way.


.

The Bill would have to have been drafted before the Ottawa Bird Flu summit, so there being a connection between the failure of the summit to meet its objective and the emergence of this proposed legislation is debatable and seems a tad outlandish, but certainly not impossible. The concept of proceeding legislation passing easily because "the next Bill will seem humane by comparison" is very valid. The frog in the pot analogy is ever appropriate when illustrating the way TPTB manipulate public and parliamentary thought.

I wonder, Sofi, have you done any research on what the debilitating effects suffered by Bird Flu survivors would be? It would be nice to pick your brain on that one.

If Avian Flu does indeed reach the epic, global pandemic proportions that are being alluded to, with 50+% gone, and many more possibly debilitated, the greatest problem facing the globe will be the total meltdown of society into either a) complete anarchy and a return to the stone age, or b) a nightmare police state. If option (b) is the deal (or the plan), then legislation such as this would come in very handy for getting rid of the "useless eaters" lying in hospital beds, or simply unable to work/contribute, and chewing up valuable and scarce resources. And in a situation such as that, I think that public opposition to such moves would be effectively zero, assuming that the public have any say in anything at all by that stage. A nightmare scenario for sure.

So how long has the euthanasia debate been ongoing in Canada? Has this legislation come suddenly out of left field, or is it a natural progression of previous wranglings?

[edit on 2005-11-4 by wecomeinpeace]

Originally posted by wecomeinpeace
The Bill would have to have been drafted before the Ottawa Bird Flu summit, so there being a connection between the failure of the summit to meet its objective and the emergence of this proposed legislation is debatable and seems a tad outlandish, but certainly not impossible.

You're right - the legislation was already drafted and waiting in the wings.

IMO - the Bill was introduced now because Martin's government is under fire. So it's a political piece-off, before the election. And a trial balloon.

But - Chronic disease and super bugs destroy budgets - are unresolved problems that MUST be addressed, somehow. Everywhere, not just in Canada. In the absence of cooperative international prevention strategies, euthanasia will be pitched as the only available option. So it's a hot topic in the backrooms of power, and it won't go away.

The concept of proceeding legislation passing easily because "the next Bill will seem humane by comparison" is very valid. The frog in the pot analogy is ever appropriate when illustrating the way TPTB manipulate public and parliamentary thought.

Yes. Worth repeating.

I wonder, Sofi, have you done any research on what the debilitating effects suffered by Bird Flu survivors would be? It would be nice to pick your brain on that one.

First, bird flu is not the only infectious epidemic waiting in the wings. Just the current focus. So if a bird flu pandemic doesn't happen, something else will. And probably sooner, rather than later. IMO - bird flu already is here in North America - it's just not publicized, and not as rampantly fatal as anticipated. Bird flu first was reported in the USA in 1957 - H5N1 was in Michigan in 2001 - and H5N1's ability to cross species barriers is what makes it so dangerous. Over the past few years, H5N1 has been reported in birds, pigs, cats and other animals. This flu probably has been bouncing back and forth between people and animals since before 1997 - but we can't know, because no one is using molecular diagnostics.

To answer your question - the debilitating effects in survivors include all the chronic diseases that already are epidemic - like heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity, COPD, diabetes, secondary depression, and dementias like Alzheiners. All of these disease are linked to misfolded proteins that hijack the stem cells for connective tissue and smooth muscle.

So the real problem of secondary debilitation comes from epidemic underlying infections with misfolded proteins. Misfolded proteins, or prions, use the immune system to spread through the body - so flu or any other infectious disease speeds progression of prion-related diseases.

For example, "a-smooth muscle actin" (ASMA) is a misfolded protein that infects almost 100% of the adult American population by adulthood. ASMA infects the stem cells for connective tissue and smooth muscle - which are present throughout the body. Connective tissue is the 'glue' that holds the body together, 'binds' one part to the next - and is broadly categorized as 'connective tissue proper,' bone, cartilage, and blood. "Connective tissue proper" includes fat cells. Smooth muscle is present in blood vessel walls, the heart, digestive tract, and reproductive organs.

Symptoms depend partly on where the ASMA "settles" in a particular person - and can change radically from one patient to the next. ASMA infecting bone might cause osteoporosis in one person, and super dense bones in the next. Infected cartilage might result in osteoarthritis - or rheumatoid arthritis if the immune system is in play in a particular way. In the lungs, ASMA might cause relatively mild asthma - or acute COPD. An inherited form affecting a male's reproductive organs might result in a very large penis, or a very small one. Really, it's a multi-factorial crap shoot - and the factors change, which alters the manifestations.

FYI - I suspect ASMA infection confers immunity to the fatal effects of bird flu, and that ASMA now is part of an escalated evolutionary process.

If Avian Flu does indeed reach the epic, global pandemic proportions that are being alluded to, with 50+% gone, and many more possibly debilitated, the greatest problem facing the globe will be the total meltdown of society into either a) complete anarchy and a return to the stone age, or b) a nightmare police state. If option (b) is the deal (or the plan), then legislation such as this would come in very handy for getting rid of the "useless eaters" lying in hospital beds, or simply unable to work/contribute, and chewing up valuable and scarce resources. And in a situation such as that, I think that public opposition to such moves would be effectively zero, assuming that the public have any say in anything at all by that stage. A nightmare scenario for sure.

Agreed - and at that point, euthanasia will be packaged as a necessary crisis response. Also remember - if it's not bird flu, it will be something else. IMO - IF the public understands what's on the table, and the science, then we can block the "crisis response" ahead of time.

So how long has the euthanasia debate been ongoing in Canada? Has this legislation come suddenly out of left field, or is it a natural progression of previous wranglings?

The eugenics/genetics movement started piggy-backing on the "death with dignity" movement several years ago to give eugenics theories legitimacy, and a marketable vehicle - in Canada, the USA, and around the world. But it's an old, old issue. ...Many people think the eugenics movement died after WWII ended, but it didn't - it went underground, and mutated into "genetics."

Francis Galton, Darwin's cousin is the father of eugenics and "quantitative genetics." In Galton's own words, "The aim of eugenics is to represent each class or sect by its best specimens; that done, to leave them to work out their common civilization in their own way."

Eugenics history and theory tell us all we need to know to understand what's happening in medicine and public health policy, and why.

The social and economic origins of genetic determinism: a case history of the American Eugenics Movement, 1900-1940 and its lessons for today.

Allen GE. Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.

Eugenics, the attempt to improve the genetic quality of the human species by 'better breeding', developed as a worldwide movement between 1900 and 1940. It was particularly prominent in the United States, Britain and Germany, and in those countries was based on the then-new science of Mendelian genetics. Eugenicists developed research programs to determine the degree in which traits such as Huntington's chorea, blindness, deafness, mental retardation (feeblemindedness), intelligence, alcoholism, schizophrenia, manic depression, rebelliousness, nomadism, prostitution and feeble inhibition were genetically determined. Eugenicists were also active in the political arena, lobbying in the United States for immigration restriction and compulsory sterilization laws for those deemed genetically unfit; in Britain they lobbied for incarceration of genetically unfit and in Germany for sterilization and eventually euthanasia. In all these countries one of the major arguments was that of efficiency: that it was inefficient to allow genetic defects to be multiplied and then have to try and deal with the consequences of state care for the offspring. National socialists called genetically defective individuals 'useless eaters' and argued for sterilization or euthanasia on economic grounds. Similar arguments appeared in the United States and Britain as well. At the present time (1997) much research and publicity is being given to claims about a genetic basis for all the same behaviors (alcoholism, manic depression, etc.), again in an economic context--care for people with such diseases is costing too much. There is an important lesson to learn from the past: genetic arguments are put forward to mask the true--social and economic--causes of human behavioral defects.

PMID: 9463076

The eugenics/genetics association came out of the closet a while ago. Despite substantial evidence that infectious disease and chemical contamination interfere with gene expression, and genetic structure, eugenics/genetics is again a powerful force influencing medical and health policies.

Francis Galton: and eugenics today.
Eugenics and the new genetics.
Genetic aspects of population policy.


FYI - In 1959, Rene Dubos addressed the fact that society would re-consider eugenics/euthanasia in a book called Mirage of Health: Utopias, Progress, and Biological Change. Dubos was associated from 1927 with the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, a corporate-funded eugenics base according to conspiracy theorists, and also wrote Biochemical Determinants of Microbial Disease in 1954.

Mirage of Health is part of a larger series called World Perspectives that deals with science, politics, religion, philosophy, art, and history. In a way, the book outlines eugenics strategy, and also, the means to combat it.

From Mirage of Health. Epilogue, WORLD PERSPECTIVES

It is the thesis of World Perspectives that man is in the process of developing a new consciousness which, in spite of his apparent spiritual and moral captivity, can eventually lift the human race above and beyond the fear, ignorance, and isolation which beset it today.

...Man has entered a new era of evolutionary history, one in which rapid change is a dominant consequence. He is contending with fundamental change, since he has intervened in the evolutionary process.

...Virtually all of our disciplines have relied on conceptions which are now incompatible with the Cartesian axiom, and with the static world view we once derived from it. For underlying the new ideas, including those of modern physics, is a unifying order, but it is not causality; it is purpose, and not the purpose of the universe and of man but the purpose in the universe and in man. In other words, we seem to inhabit a world of dynamic process and structure. Therefore we need a calculus of potentialitity rather than one of probability, a dialectic of polarity, one in which unity and diversity are defined as simultaneous and necessary poles of the same essence.

In a sense, I would say eugenicists/geneticists cling to arbitrary and disproven rules of static being, while others embrace the reality-truth of actively becoming. ...It really is all about evolution.

.

As a pandemic looms, authorities and professionals are scrambling to set priorities and establish ground rules.

In the latest edition of the online medical journal Medscape, doctors discuss the question:

Could Disaster Conditions Ever Justify Euthanasia?

There were many rumors of death, mayhem, and abandonment in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina. One of those rumors was that doctors and nurses were euthanizing patients in the city's hospitals. Many of the rumors and accusations in the aftermath of the hurricane proved unfounded, but today, more than a year after the disaster, a doctor and 2 nurses stand accused of killing patients on the long-term acute-care ward of the city's Memorial Medical Center.

By all accounts, the conditions at the hospital were horrendous. Surrounded by water, with no electricity, no plumbing, dwindling food supplies, temperatures above 100°F, no contact with the outside world, and patients who could not be easily evacuated, the doctors and nurses of Memorial faced daunting circumstances, to say the least. They must have felt that they were doomed.

It's for the courts to decide the truth of what happened during those 4 agonizing days, but one thing is certain if the reporting of National Public Radio is to be believed: Discussions of whether to resort to euthanasia did take place among the medical staff, even before the hurricane hit.[6] Which brings us to a question well worth considering: Are there circumstances so horrible that euthanasia is the only just course of action?

The discussion is worth reading in full.



Also see:

Principles of medical ethics

We had to kill our patients.

Euthanasia Ethics Statement


And if you can get there:

Graham D. Revisiting Hippocrates: Does an oath really matter? JAMA. 2000;284:2841-2842.

Sidel VW. The social responsibilities of health professionals: lessons from their role in Nazi Germany. JAMA. 1996;276:1679-1680.


.

.


It's flu season, and a pandemic is looming. The question is not "if" there will be a pandemic, but "when" - and if it's not bird flu, it will be something else.

So euthanasia ("assisted suicide" or "mercy killing") is suddenly a hot topic again.

The idea of euthanasia has been kept alive by the eugenics movement, behind one front or another, for one reason or another, since going underground after WWII. Every time there is a social crisis, a natural disaster, or some other catastrophe, someone starts pushing euthanasia policies.

The basic eugenics premise says, "The fit will survive and," by clear implication, "only the fit should be allowed to survive."

BUT

Pandemic flu does not work like seasonal flu. Seasonal flu tends to kill the very old, very young and the already sick, while the opposite is true with pandemic flu.

Pandemic flu kills the young and the fit - because they have healthy, fully functioning immune systems.

When someone 'catches' pandemic flu, their immune system goes into high gear - the healthier the immune system, the stronger the response. But in pandemic flu, a strong immune response triggers a "cytokine storm" with life threatening inflammation, and the disease uses the immune system to spread through the body. So death comes quickly.

In fact, being "fit" and having a healthy immune system is a liability when it comes to pandemic flu.

In fact, young, healthy and fit people are most likely to die from pandemic flu. To paraphrase the eugenics credo, "The fit are the least likely to survive."

Especially if euthanasia becomes standard medical policy during the coming pandemic.


Q: If this fact is known, then why is euthanasia even being considered by medical professionals?

A: Because medical professionals will have few-to-no options for treating infected patients in the coming pandemic. There is no vaccine for pandemic flu, and anti-virals don't work after symptoms have progressed for 6-odd hours.

Current policies and the realities they create will put doctors - and patients - in a no-win situation.

It's a conundrum.

Pandemic bird flu can be:

- Prevented by taking anti-virals before exposure occurs, OR

- Treated with anti-virals, IF the treatment is given within 6 hours after the first symptoms appear.

BUT

- Medical insurance policies do NOT cover prevention or early diagnosis.


During a pandemic, hospitals will be overwhelmed, and they will accept flu patients only after life threatening symptoms or complications have already occurred; it's called triage.

BUT

- Once life threatening symptoms appear, and patients are in respiratory failure, there is very little that medical science can do.


Patients with life threatening symptoms can be helped IF they are put on a ventilator - the single most effective medical intervention for respiratory failure.

BUT

- The average big city hospital has maybe 5 ventilators. Effective treatment will be available only to very few people even in a hospital, because ventilators are in extremely short supply.

NOTE: The Federal Pandemic Plan policies that say which patients are prioritized for access to limited supplies of ventilators, new vaccines and anti-virals have NOT been made public.


Anti-virals cost around $5 per day for prevention. The treatment needs to start before pandemic flu first appears in a community, and must be maintained throughout the "wave." Pandemic "waves" can be expected to last up to12 weeks, and there may be 2-3 waves per year for several years.

So preventive treatment with anti-virals for one year of a pandemic will cost around $840.00 to $1260.00 per person, per year. Out front.

Most people have not stockpiled personal supplies of Tamiflu or Relenza for flu prevention. Most families can't afford it.

It's probably just as well. Viruses become immune to anti-virals, just as bacteria become immune to antibiotics. The new H5N1 bird flu strains already are resistant to Tamiflu and Relenza.

In fact, most people will live through the coming pandemic - without anti-virals like Tamiflu or Relenza. And even if 50% of the world's population dies, there will be over 3 billion people still left alive.

In corporate-military terms, 3 billion people left alive translates as acceptable collateral damage.


The best advice offered for surviving the coming pandemic is, "Avoid exposure."

Preparing for a bird flu epidemic

Noted virologist Robert G. Webster believes avian flu has the potential for an influenza pandemic rivaling the one in 1918 that killed an estimated 40 million persons worldwide.

If H5N1 mutates, Dr. Webster suggests unvaccinated persons stockpile dry food and medicine and head for the hills for three months.

He also warns Americans not to count on the federal government if the avian flu hits. "If this killer virus hits, the country's infrastructure will fall apart. The hospitals will be overloaded. Most of us don't realize how interdependent we are for food," he told AARP. "In a pandemic, people would get sick, the gasoline supply would stop, food would not be there."

But this advice is contradicted by the international corporate strategy and pandemic plan, which is at odds with altruistic public health planning.

The corporate-driven Pandemic Plan is designed to "prevent panic," keep people working, protect the "economy" and international trade - and puts profits before people.

So we're stuck with the eugenics' driven Survival of the Fittest non-strategy - essentially a policy of 'benign' neglect - and euthanasia as the main treatment plan.




Could Disaster Conditions Ever Justify Euthanasia?

Principles of medical ethics

We had to kill our patients.

Euthanasia Ethics Statement