#debilicide

Name: 'debili' from 'debilitas', meaning 'disabled' in Latin, and 'cide' is a Latin suffix meaning 'killer'. It is intentionally similar to words like 'genocide' or 'homicide'.

Meaning: committing any of the following acts with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, disabled people or people with a specific type of disability (for example, intellectually disabled people):

Killing disabled people

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to disabled people

Deliberately inflicting on disabled people conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part

Imposing measures intended to prevent births of disabled people

The wording of the above definition is in part taken from the UN's definition of genocide.

Simpler wording: doing any of the following things to try to get rid of many disabled people, or to try to get rid of people with a particular disability (for example, people with intellectual disabilities):

Killing disabled people

Seriously hurting disabled people, either by hurting their body or hurting their mind

Changing disabled people's lives to be worse or more dangerous on purpose

This disability pride month, I would like to raise awareness of the Aktion T4 programme and all its victims.

T4 is short for 'Tiergartenstrasse 4', the address where the programme was coordinated.

Aktion T4 was the Nazi's programme to try and eradicate all hereditary disabilities in order to "cleanse" the gene pool.

It started with mandating forced sterilisation and sometimes abortion for people with certain disabilities. This escalated to what the Nazis called "mercy killings," where certain disabled people were murdered, often by medical professionals. Disabled people in healthcare facilities were all evaluated by medical professionals to decide whether or not they were "worthy of life." A red plus sign meant death, a blue minus meant life, and a question mark meant further evaluation was required. The "mercy killings" lead to mass murder via gas chambers, prototypes of the ones that would later be used in the holocaust.

Some sources state that ~250,000 people were killed in the Aktion T4 programme, while others state ~300,000.

Either way, hundreds of thousands of disabled and Deaf people were murdered, countless more were victims of forced sterilisation or abortion, and many victims' families were unaware of what was happening to them.

And yet, very few people have even heard of Aktion T4. I encourage you to take a moment to remember, mourn, and respect the people whose lives were stolen and hurt in this programme.