by Lori Brannigan Kelly

About the author: Lori Brannigan Kelly, a former White House staff member during the Reagan administration, is a freelance writer.

So far as I know, this century’s first “cost-based” proposal for the selective killing of “worthless” humans appeared in a monograph published in Leipzig, Germany, in 1920—more than a dozen years before Adolf Hitler came to power. In an essay entitled Permitting the Destruction of Unworthy Life, Dr. Karl Binding wrote:

Since they require extensive care, they occasion the development of a profession devoted to providing years and decades of care for absolutely valueless lives. . . . Again, I find no grounds, legally, socially, ethically or religiously— for not permitting the killing of these people, who are the fearsome counter image of true humanity.

On June 1, 1995, Domenica Lawson was born in England...