Holocaust Studies

Lesson Plan: Euthanasia and the T4 Program

Lesson Objectives:

Students will:

1)     Analyze their own thinking about the value of individual humans and society’s responsibility for them

2)     Consider the role of the German government in deciding who was worthy of life

3)      Understand the facts of the T4 program

Procedure:

1)     Students will have read USHMM “Mentally and Physically Handicapped: Victims of the Nazi Era” for homework

2)     Give students literal definition of euthanasia including it’s Greek root of “easy death” [Overhead/information on page 2]

3)     Place scenarios on overhead with the first showing – student discussion

4)     Continue through scenarios with student discussion, ask at what point students will no longer endorse the taking of human life

5)     Discuss “Angel of Death” trial in Goffstown, NH [Substitute local/current story]

6)     Review the details of the T4 program

a.      Who were the victims

b.      Beginnings in 1939 through 1941 resistance

c.      Continuation after resistance

d.      Nazi euphemism use of “euthanasia” and “special treatment”

e.      Development of Operation 14f13

5) Homework: In essay form, answer the following question: What are the moral implications of the T4 program in today’s society?

Materials:

            1) Overhead of scenarios

            2) Angel of death clipping from newspaper

Assessment:

1)     Quiz that includes this subject

2)     Essay

Euthanasia: the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy

Etymology: Greek, easy death, from euthanatos, from eu- + thanatos (death)

A woman is suffering from ovarian cancer. All methods of treatment have been exhausted and her death is unavoidable. Knowing that she has a few months of life left that may well be spent in excruciating pain, she chooses to take an overdose of medication that will cause her to fall asleep and then eventually die.

A woman is suffering from advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease). Although she has many months to live, she is no longer able to care for herself – she is completely paralyzed and can no longer speak. Her husband of many years has discussed this eventuality with her and knows that she would prefer to die rather than live in such a condition and gives her a lethal injection of her pain medication.

A woman suffering from Alzheimer’s is admitted to the county nursing home. She has no immediate family, only distant relatives who are unable to care for her. She has what appears to be no sense of reality. A night nurse gives her a lethal dose of sleeping medication.

A woman who suffers from severe schizophrenia is admitted to a mental institution. She has not responded well to medication and even when she does, she often refuses to take it. She lives on the street most of the time and is tormented by the voices she hears and hallucinations. She has neither insurance nor family members to pay for her hospitalization. She will become a permanent burden on Medicaid. Rather than allow her care to become a drain on public resources, a doctor gives her a lethal dose of sleeping medication. She will be, he believes, at peace.

A woman who is severely physically handicapped, unable to care for herself and unable to make a contribution to society is allowed to starve to death in the hospital in which she resides by the administrators responsible for her care.

The government recommends that all patients deemed mentally ill or physically unfit be “euthanized” to end their misery and end their drain of resources.