In 1920, in Germany, Karl Binding, a "penal law specialist" (according to G. Agamben) and Alfred Hoche, a professor of medicine, produced the genuinely creepy document _Authorization for the Annihilation of Life Unworthy of Being Lived_. It made quite an impression on policymakers at the time.
(James M. Glass appropriated this as the title for his book _Life Unworthy of Life_, about how the Bindig-Hoche document helped shape Nazi 'cleansing' policies.)
In the German _Authorization for the Annihilation_ document is a chilling quote: "Are there human lives that have so lost the quality of legal good that their very existence no longer has any value, either for the person leading such a life, or for society?" The document goes to complain about "the energy [with which we] attempt to keep in existence lives that are no longer worthy of being lived" and groans about "the enormous care for existences that not only are devoid of value [wertlosen], but even ought to be valued negatively." (Die Freigabe, pp. 27-29) There is then complaining about the mentally ill, who certainly won't refuse food if you give it to 'em, but, what's the point even giving it to them since they aren't contributing anything? I'm guessing these are the useless feeders. I don't know of Dr. Bindig was required to take a Hippocratic Oath.
I'm getting this all from Agamben's _Homo Sacer_, pp. 136-139, btw. Simply reading those 4 pages would pretty much explain it. It's near the end, in the chapter titled "Life That Does Not Deserve to Live."
-B.
Doug Henwood wrote:
"I just read in his Wikipedia bio that his mother, who'd suffered a psychotic breakdown, was killed by the Nazis as a "useless eater." Anyone know the original German for this appalling term?"