But Then They Came for Me
When Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller was lecturing across the United States after his release from the Nazi camps, he often closed with the following words:
They came for the communists, but I wasn’t a communist – so I didn’t object;
They came for the socialists, but I wasn’t a socialist – so I didn’t object;
They came for the trade union leaders, but I wasn’t a trade union leader – so I didn’t object;
They came for the Jews, but I wasn’t a Jew – so I didn’t object;
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to object.1
A contemporary paraphrase of the famous words of Pastor Niemöller might read:
They came for the unborn, but I wasn’t unborn – so I walked away.
They came for the newborn and took their organs, but I was not newborn – so I chose not to know.
They came for the very old, but I wasn’t old yet – so I said nothing.
They came for the incurably ill and those suffering from what they called “poor quality of life”; but I liked my quality of life – so I did nothing.
But then they came for me, and I didn’t even know why – and there was no one left to do anything to help me.
In reading through a 1991 Declaration of Patients’ Rights, I was struck by the emphasis placed on the right to refuse treatment rather than the right to receive treatment.
What will I do when my baby must be aborted because no defectives are allowed? Will I find myself in a back alley having that baby in secrecy, to say nothing of raising it in hiding?
What will I do when, as happened in Germany, my physically fit son comes back from fighting for his country and is put to death because he is now handicapped?
What will I do when I am old and cannot afford outside help and am therefore offered a lethal injection? What will I do when my adult son or daughter encourages me to accept it?
My “right to die” will have become my obligation to die. My so-called rights will have turned to curse me.
Footnotes
- Martin Niemöller, as quoted in Dr. Franklin H. Lihell, “Lest We Forget: The Need to Expose Holocaust Myths, Plain Fiction and Lies,” The Jewish Times (May 1, 1986)