DNR

Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, there have been a number of cases of parents of children with learning difficulties or life-limiting illnesses- and, likewise, adults with such issues- that were asked to sign ‘do not resuscitate’ (DNR) forms in the event of being diagnosed with COVID-19. A report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has also detailed that blanket ‘do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation’ (DNACPR) orders were placed on any care home residents that caught the virus, without the prior consent of the resident or their family- stating that the orders have “caused potentially avoidable deaths”. Even though cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is- statistically- largely unsuccessful, and can cause unnecessary harm and injuries such as punctured lungs, broken ribs, and bruising- we, at ILLUMINATEES, believe that no person should be deprived of a fundamental human right such as the choice to possibly live or definitely die (which, as reported by the CQC, is a potential breach of Articles 2, 8, and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights).

The concept of contemporary eugenics movements is very much one of British origin, that was then exported to the USA, which- in turn- inspired and became most synonymous with Nazi Germany. Understood by historians to have paved the way for the ethnic cleansing of the holocaust, the Nazis first identified and then systematically killed- with the use of poison gas- German citizens deemed mentally and physically unfit. Nazi eugenics policies were responsible for the sterilisation or killing of hundreds of thousands of people, targeting those with congenital cognitive and physical disabilities- including sufferers of cerebral palsy, muscular distrophy, and epilepsy; schizophrenic and manic-depressive persons; the blind and deaf; those deemed to be degenerates, feeble-minded, idle, insane, or weak- as well as homosexuals, prisoners, and political dissidents.

An extreme example it may well be, but this DNR scandal is one of countless parallels between Nazism and the COVID-19 pandemic; it’s classic eugenics- a removal of the apparent weak and worthless from society, by the very health service “heroes” that the nation stood, socially-distanced on their doorsteps, clapping for every week during the first national lockdown. Although the manner is obviously nowhere near as abhorrent, are these incidents of parents being effectively asked to allow their physically or mentally handicapped children to die, all that different from the forced “euthanasia” of institutionalised disabled people in Nazi Germany?