https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org...ocaust/2021-01
Lessons for Health Professions Education
Eugenics. As a scientifically and politically motivated attempt to improve humankind, eugenics existed in the first half of the 20th century in many countries, led by the United States.4 In Germany, eugenics was called racial hygiene and modeled on the American eugenics movement.5 When negative eugenics merged with German National Socialism, racism was medicalized to rid society of chronically ill people and others whose lives were considered unworthy, burdensome, and threatening to Aryan “hereditary health.” The first German eugenic initiative was legal coercive sterilization, which progressed to the notorious “euthanasia” (medically sanctioned murder) program that was a next step on the path to the systematic murder of millions of people.6 Students should learn this history, which informs current debates about care of the dying, the disabled, and people with minoritized racial and ethnic identities and about genetics and reproductive health care.