After I slept over my letter I realized in the version I sent you data driven persons I had not specifically stated the rationale for my alarm sounding reaction to the well documented report in the Sunday 08 09 2020 NYT about the Deadly and Reprehensible policies promulgated and implemented rigorously by the Belgian Govt. In paragraphs 9, 10 and 11 of the original letter from 08 17 2020 I have made modifications. I am placing the amended letter here and adding an additional attachment that provides foundational data from the domain of medical ethics
I have been thinking about this very distressing and troubling investigative Report. I commend the authors Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Matt Apuzzo and Monika Pronczuk and the brave members of the Doctors without Borders. Your global Newspaper published a previous comment from me on methods to contain the COVID -19 in our community
I am very disappointed to learn this: Ms. De Block, the National health minister, declined to be interviewed and did not respond to written questions but I was somewhat encouraged to read that the Spanish Police are investigating policies actions that lead to death of Individuals with Covid- 19.
I have sought input from a Psychiatrist colleague because I was very perturbed by what I read, and I have spent years studying Eugenics and intermingling of the powerful conceptual currents that swept an entire nation of highly advanced German people namely Lebensraum and LebensunwerthesLeben.
I was shocked to read in the Sunday NYT[ 08 09 20] of the horrible extreme application of eugenic principles by the Health Minister in Belgium to manage the health concerns of persons above 60-65. The statements of members of the Doctors without Borders who served voluntarily in Belgium are most alarming. I was horrified.
I began to think of the campaigns initiated by the German Govt even before the start of WW-II against several categories of Fellow Germans who intellectual and developmental disabilities, Cerebral Palsy etc. There were pictures of these young people with the purported cost of taking care of them [Reich Mark 60,000 and arguing against this emphatically.]
Furthermore, they espoused Dalton’s Eugenics and their expansionist political creed even before they operationalized it in Sudetenland,[part of Czechoslovakia] and when they rolled out the Final Solution in the Wannsee Palace in 1942 in conclave of powerful leaders including Medical professionals under the leadership of Himmler roughly six weeks after the Japanese attack. The note taker was Adolf Eichmann. The deadly and demoniacal principles of their creed that goes back into 1920s.
These are LEBENSRAUM [ territory needed by true German people for their natural life and economic self-sufficiency] and Lebensunwerthes leben. [ people who have no right to their life- and must be euthanized.]
Even though it was known that institutions were operating to exterminate those deemed as living people unworthy to life Brundage and others organized the Olympics in Berlin. The Olympics was conducted in grand manner glorifying athletic accomplishments while many Germans who were identified with spurious criteria as unworthy of life were actively being euthanized. [I have provided my background material]
I am bringing this up because we must take steps to call to account the Belgian Govt for Eugenics based extermination methodology by malignant negligence based on Govt priorities. I believe their policies and practices used to implement a nation a wide medical experiment to determine the sustainability of the Health care Systems to provide treatment for the COVID -19 illness to only persons below 60-65 and the impact on population Health when persons above age 60-65 in Nursing Homes and Assisted Living facilities are excluded by arbitrary Govt fiat will be shown to have violated not just the Basic Overarching Principle of Medical Ethics –“ Primum Non Nocere” [Hippocratic Oath] but also foundational elements of the Nurenberg Code 1947, The Helsinki Declaration I954, Belmont Principles 1979 specifically the characterization of “Respect for Persons , Code of Medical Ethics, and the especially applicable Doctrine of Double effects. The second of these four conditions are an application of the more general principle that good ends do not justify evil means {cf. Romans 3:8}
The argument the Doctors of Reich offered at the Trial for doctors did not exculpate their criminal dead. The Doctors Trail was essentially a murder Trial. “They contended that these experiments were necessary and that the “good of the state” takes precedence over that of the individual. Leibbrand replied that “the state could order deadly experiments on human subjects, but the physicians remained responsible for [not] carrying them out.” Dr W. Leibbrand participated in the Doctors Trial. The NEJM account of the Nurenberg code offers details about the Doctors trial. This statement especially resonated with me in a horrible manner, “He explained to the court that German physicians at the beginning of the 20th century had adopted a “biologic thinking” according to which a patient was a series of biologic events, and nothing more than “a mere object, like a mail package.”12 Leibbrand insisted that such a view precluded any human relation between physicians and their patients and that it represented a perversion of Hippocratic ethics and “a lack of morality and reverence for human life.
Further, I am concerned that if this large scale nationwide medical experimentation is not investigated and appropriately adjudicated, the Govt may feel empowered to apply the principles of Lebensunwerthesleben and Lebensraum in terms of the health care domain. I dread to consider in what directions these policies may be directed- Dr. Lifton delineated 5 steps that lead from Coercive sterilization to Outright Genocide following the Wannsee Conclave.
The AMA Code of Medical Ethics Section offers guidance on Building relationships of trust with patients is fundamental to ethical practice in medicine. Responsibilities of physicians & patients has several sections I have selected two: Political Action by Physicians Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 1.2.10 and Physician Exercise of Conscience Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 1.1.7 I will be glad to share Ethical issues related to the implementation of Crisis Standards of care.
Key tenets of 1.2.10 is this: Physicians who participate in advocacy activities should:
- Ensure that the health of patients is not jeopardized and that patient care is not compromised
- Refrain from using undue influence or pressure colleagues to participate in advocacy activities and should not punish colleagues, overtly or covertly, for deciding not to participate.
Key Tenets of 1.1.7 are:
- Physicians are expected to uphold the ethical norms of their profession, including fidelity to patients and respect for patient self-determination. Yet physicians are not defined solely by their profession. They are moral agents in their own right and, like their patients, are informed by and committed to diverse cultural, religious, and philosophical traditions and beliefs. For some physicians, their professional calling is imbued with their foundational beliefs as persons, and at times the expectation that physicians will put patients’ needs and preferences first may be in tension with the need to sustain moral integrity and continuity across both personal and professional life.
- Physicians’ freedom to act according to conscience is not unlimited, however. Physicians are expected to provide care in emergencies, honor patients’ informed decisions to refuse life-sustaining treatment, and respect basic civil liberties and not discriminate against individuals in deciding whether to enter into a professional relationship with a new patient.
I am trying to figure how to call to account the Belgian Govt especially the architect Ms. deblock to age- based elimination of persons above 60-65 with suspected illness needing acute medical care. We cannot allow business as usual Congress with the Belgian State without investigation through the ICJ in the Hague.
You may request my key resources; "The Nuremberg Code-Belmont Principles and Medical Ethics, The Doctrine of double Effects", "AMA Code of Medical Ethics-Physicians Patient Relationships", "Alber Camus- the Plague", "Camus-The Plague as Serum Against Hate", "Camus- The Plague Lessons", "Joseph Conrad-The Heart of Darkness" that influences my reflections and plans to call out and directly challenge the policies and practices of the Govt of Belgium.
I welcome your comments.
Velandy Manohar, MD.,
Medical Director- Aware Recovery Care [ARC]- CT,[Part of the team that has developing and implementing Protocols to manage the risks facing our staff who visit people in their homes since February -March 2020 Will be glad to send you the initial package. President ARC In-home Addiction Treatment,[IHAT] PC . Recipient of the Impact award from IHAT Institute.
Best In Medicine American health Council- 2018
Distinguished Life Fellow, Am Psychiatric Association, APA
Chair- Community Engagement and Outreach Committee of the Community Advisory Council of the office of Health Strategy of CT
Founding Member and Past member of the Steering Committee of The Psychotherapy Caucus of the APA
Founding Member- Community Resilience Collaborative of Mx County of CT [Focused on Adverse Effects of Childhood Trauma]
External Member of the Commission on Health Equity who responded to the RFI from National Institute of Minority Health and Disparities
Charter Member- CT Multi-Cultural Health Partnership. Winner- Nancy Berger Award
Member- CT State Medical Society- Quality of Care, Ethics, Disaster Preparedness Committees.
Recipient of Public Service Award from Secretary of State of CT
Member of Medical Advisory Board of Dept of Motor Vehicles,
Member of Advisory and Review Board of the Whiting Forensic Hospital, Middletown, CT
Member of the Hearing Panels of the CT. Medical Licensing Board.