Can medicine dispense with a theological perspective on human nature?

Alasdair MacIntyre

pp. 119-137

in: Daniel Callahan, Tristram Engelhardt (eds), The roots of ethics, Berlin, Springer, 1981

Abstract

"The offices of T-4 prepared a questionnaire which was sent to all mental hospitals and psychiatric clinics in Germany. On the basis of the completed questionnaire… a committee of three experts, chosen from among the doctors connected with T-4, made a decision. If this long-distance diagnosis was unfavorable, the patient was sent to an "observation station"… unless there was a contrary diagnosis by the director of the "observation station," he was transferred to a euthanasia establishment proper… when doctors were placed at the head of these establishments, more efficient methods were introduced…. The method they devised was asphyxiation by carbon monoxide gas…. Patients were generally rendered somnolent by being given morphine, scopolamine injections or narcotic tablets before being taken, in groups of ten, to the gas chamber…. Families were advised of the patient's death by form letters which stated that the patient had succumbed to "heart failure" or "pneumonia.""¹