Today’s Unworthy Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Once in power – Adolf Hitler took the oath of office as Chancellor of the Third Reich on January 30, 1933 – the Nazi regime made sterilization one of their first priorities. On June 22, Wilhelm Frick, the minister of the interior, introduced the early sterilization law with a declaration that Germany was in grave danger of Volkstod (“death of the people”) and that harsh and sweeping measures were therefore imperative. The law was implemented three weeks later, less than six months after Hitler had become chancellor, and was extended by amendation later that year. It became a basic sterilization doctrine and set the tone for the regime’s medicalized approach to “life unworthy of life”. Included among the “hereditarily sick” who were to be surgically sterilized were the categories of congenital feeblemindedness (now called mental deficiency), an estimate 200,000; epilepsy, 60,000; Huntington’s chorea (a hereditary brain disorder), 600; hereditary blindness, 4,000; hereditary deafness, 16,000; grave bodily malformation, 20,000; and hereditary alcoholism, 10,000. The projected total of 410,000 was considered only preliminary, drawn mostly from people already in institutions; it was assumed that much greater numbers of people would eventually be identified and sterilized.
Special “Hereditary Health Courts” were set up to make decisions on sterilization, their composition reflecting the desired combination of medicalization and Nazi Party influence. Of the three members, two were physicians – one an administrative health officer likely to have close Party ties and the other ostensibly knowledgeable about issues of hereditary health; the third was a district judge, also likely to be close to the regime, who served as chairman and coordinator. There were also appeals courts, which made final decisions in contested cases and on which some of the regime’s most recognized medical leaders served. All physicians were legally required to report to health officers anyone they encountered in their practice or elsewhere who fell into any of the preceding categories for sterilization, and also to give testimony on such matters unrestricted by the principle of patient-doctor confidentiality. Physicians also performed the surgical procedures., The entire process was backed up by law and police power.
Culled from: The Nazi Doctors
Morbid Pinterest!
Here’s a pin worth a gander! (Thanks to Aaron for the link.)
Arcane Excerpts!
More strange cases of “menstruation” from Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle (1896):
“Cases of menstruation through the eyes are frequently mentioned by the older writers. Bellini, Hellwig, and Dodonaeus all speak of menstruation from the eye. Jonston quotes an example of ocular menstruation in a young Saxon girl, and Bartholinus an instance associated with bloody discharge of the foot. Guepin has an example in a case of a girl of eighteen who commenced to menstruate when three years old. The menstruation was tolerably regular, occurring every thirty-two or thirty-three days, and generally lasting from one to six days. At the cessation of the menstrual flow, she generally had a supplementary epistaxis [nosebleed], and on one occasion, when this was omitted, she suffered a sudden effusion into the anterior chamber of the eye. The discharge had only lasted two hours on this occasion. He also relates an example of hemorrhage into the vitreous humor in a case of amenorrhea menstruation by several American observers. Liebreich found examples of retinal hemorrhage in suppressed menstruation, and Sir James Paget says that he has seen a young girl at Moorfields who had a small effusion of blood into the anterior chamber of the eye at the menstrual period, which became absorbed during the intervals of menstruation. Blair relates the history of a case of vicarious menstruation attended with conjunctivitis and opacity of the cornea. Law speaks of a plethoric woman of thirty who bled freely from the eyes, though menstruating regularly.”
Uh-huh. I believe you. No, really!