A leading doctor has issued a warning that the response to the coronavirus in the UK should not lead to the acceptance of eugenics [1].
Writing in the Huffington Post, the CEO of Care not Killing, Dr Gordan MacDonald said that while very difficult decisions have to be taken about who to treat in a context of grossly overstretched healthcare resources, we must be aware of the danger of changing medicine in a way which would be detrimental to the most vulnerable in society.
“In responding to the Covid-19 virus, we must ensure no back door is left open to the dangerous philosophy of eugenics”.
He cited former BBC Today presenter John Humphrys, who wrote in the Daily Mail: “I know I’m among the vulnerable group for coronavirus, but I just don’t believe all lives are equal.”
Similarly, Max Hastings, speaking on BBC World at One, stated that the elderly are “becoming a dead weight on the NHS”.
While such examples do not constitute euthanasia or assisting suicide because doctors are not actively hastening the end of patients’ lives, he said, “there is a danger that the same eugenicist thinking can feature”.