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As the debate over physi­cian assisted sui­cide inten­si­fies in the United States and else­where, it is increas­ingly impor­tant to under­stand some of the far-reaching polit­i­cal impli­ca­tions of this issue. This pro­gram focuses on the rela­tion­ship between the inter­na­tional eugen­ics move­ment and the inter­na­tional euthana­sia move­ment, as well as their sem­i­nal influ­ence on the Nazi racial laws and exter­mi­na­tion pro­grams. The Third Reich’s racial laws were pro­foundly influ­enced by Amer­i­can eugen­ics phi­los­o­phy and leg­is­la­tion. In turn, the eugen­ics move­ment in Ger­many gave rise to the “T-4″ euthana­sia pro­gram, which was the begin­ning of and the oper­a­tional foun­da­tion of Nazi geno­cide. Among other issues, the broad­cast dis­cusses the sem­i­nal Amer­i­can influ­ence on the “Law for the Pre­ven­tion of Hered­i­tar­ily Ill Prog­eny” (the first of the Nazi racial laws) and dis­cusses the Knauer case. The lat­ter was the euth­a­niz­ing of a deformed child (at the request of the par­ents). This killing opened the judi­cial door to offi­cial, state autho­rized killing in Nazi Ger­many. (There is a sim­i­lar case work­ing its way through the U.S. court sys­tem, as of early 1995.) (Recorded on 1/26/97.)