Karl Binding
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
known as a promoter of the theory of retributive justice
Retributive justice
Retributive justice is a theory of justice that considers that punishment, if proportionate, is a morally acceptable response to crime, with an eye to the satisfaction and psychological benefits it can bestow to the aggrieved party, its intimates and society....
. His influential book, Die Freigabe der Vernichtung Lebensunwertem Lebens ("Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living"), written together with the psychiatrist Alfred Hoche
Alfred Hoche
Alfred Erich Hoche was a German psychiatrist well-known for his writings about eugenics and euthanasia.-Life:Hoche studied in Berlin and Heidelberg and became a psychiatrist in 1890. He moved to Strasbourg in 1891. From 1902 he was a professor at Freiburg im Breisgau and was a director of the...
, was used by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
to justify their T-4 Euthanasia Program.
Life
Binding was born in Frankfurt am MainFrankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, the third child of Georg Christoph Binding and Dorothea Binding.
In 1860 Binding moved to Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
where he studied history and jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
. After a short stay in Heidelberg where he won a law prize, he moved back to Göttingen to finish his studies. In 1864 he completed his habilitation
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...
paper in Latin about Roman criminal law and lectured in criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
at Heidelberg university. Two years later he was appointed professor of law of state and criminal law and procedure in Basel, Switzerland. In the same year he married Marie Luise Wirsing and published Das burgundisch-romanische Königreich and Entwurf eines Strafgesetzbuches für den Norddeutschen Bund. At this time he also became friends with Johann Jacob Bernoulli - an archaeologist, Jakob Burckhardt - an art historian, and Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
- a philosopher. In August 1867 his first son, Rudolf Georg was born, followed two years later by his second son. Rudolf G Binding later became a famous writer. Karl Binding and his wife were to have one more son and two daughters. In 1869 his family moved to Freiburg and Binding volunteered to fight in the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
. Although his lack of military training meant he was unable to serve as a soldier, he was accepted as an orderly and posted to the front, serving in a field hospital. In 1872 he took on a post at the Reichs university in Straßburg. In the same year he moved to Leipzig university where he was to continue to work for the next 40 years. In 1879 Binding began work in the district court of Leipzig where he remained until 1900. After becoming Leipzig university's rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
and receiving his emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
, he moved to Freiburg, where his wife died only a few days later aged 71. In 1918 during the First World War, Binding left Germany to lecture German soldiers in Macedonia and Bulgarian intellectuals in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
.
Allowing the destruction of life unworthy of living: Die Freigabe der Vernichtung Lebensunwerten Lebens
This was the title of one of Binding's most infamous books, co-written by the psychologist, Alfred Hoche. The book was divided into two parts, the first was written by Binding, the second by Hoche. Binding discussed the consequences that the legal status of suicide would have on euthanasia and the legality of killing the mentally ill. Hoche concentrated on the relationship of doctors to their patients and the seriously ill. (See Alfred HocheAlfred Hoche
Alfred Erich Hoche was a German psychiatrist well-known for his writings about eugenics and euthanasia.-Life:Hoche studied in Berlin and Heidelberg and became a psychiatrist in 1890. He moved to Strasbourg in 1891. From 1902 he was a professor at Freiburg im Breisgau and was a director of the...
.) Binding and Hoche are noted for the influence their work had on the Nazis and especially the Aktion T4 Euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
Program.
Two possible interpretations of German law
In Binding's own interpretation of the law in 1920s Germany, suicideSuicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
or attempting suicide was not illegal and should be treated as being within the law. This would mean that no-one would have the right to stop a person from killing themselves and that a person who wants to die would not even have the right to defend themselves against such an attempt.
Binding goes on to assume that the right to suicide would then also have to be transferable to another person; meaning that a person also has the right to let someone else cause their death if they so wish. In this case, anyone that has killed a seriously ill person, acting on the behalf of that person, has acted within the law.
Binding's second possible interpretation of German law meant that suicide was neither legal nor illegal. He argued that the law concerning murder only referred to the killing of other people and not to suicide. In this case suicide would be perfectly legal, but euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
, involving the killing of another person, even with their permission would have to be treated as murder.
Again if suicide is not illegal, then no-one can stop another person from killing themselves. Binding noted that in reality, the majority of people who prevent a suicide attempt are not usually prosecuted and that most people who are prevented from killing themselves do not make a second attempt. He was of the opinion that in a case of prosecution due to euthanasia, the court should differentiate between the taking of a healthy life and a terminally ill person.
Definition of euthanasia
Binding defined euthanasia as occurring when a person gives a terminally illTerminal illness
Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as...
person, with the intention of reducing pain, a medicine which either immediately or eventually leads to that person's painless death.
For a case of euthanasia to stay within the law, the medicine must enable the person to die painlessly at or around the same time as they would have otherwise died. In this way the doctor is simply exchanging the cause of death, from a painful one caused by illness to a painless one caused by a medicament. Any killing which involves the shortening of a life was seen as unlawful.
Binding claimed the killing of the terminally ill was not an exception to the law against murder but was a lawful act in the interests of the patient. It put an end to their terrible suffering and should not be seen as a killing but as a reduction in their suffering. Binding did not think it necessary to obtain permission from a person who was to be killed, but if they were able to and expressed the wish to live, that wish must be respected.
Binding split the group of people which he wanted to be considered for killing into three groups, "two larger ones and a middle group".
- 1 A person who has been mortally wounded or is terminally ill and has somehow communicated their wish to die.
The person does not have to be in pain, it is enough that they are in a helpless condition and that their condition is incurable. It is also irrelevant if the person could be saved in another situation.
- 2 A person that is incurably mentally illMental illnessA mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
.
Binding describes these people as having neither the will to die, nor the will to live. They are "living pointless lives and are a burden for society and their families". He also believed it to be unfair on carers to keep such “lives unworthy of living” alive.
- 3 The people belonging to the middle group, were “mentally healthy” people, which having suffered a serious injury are now unconscious. If they ever awake, they "will awake to a nameless suffering".
"Their killing should not be seen as a killing as such but as saving the person from a terrible end."
Binding could not work out a general rule for the killing of this group. Importantly he accepted that many killings of these people would actually be unjustifiable, although this would only be evident after death. He believed that the law would treat such killings as manslaughter. This led him to argue for a new law to allow for such killings which according with his views would have been "justifiable".
Binding wanted a committee to decide on a killing on a case by case basis. The committee was to consist of a doctor, a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
or other doctor and a jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
to check that the committee was acting within the law. The committee would be able to call witnesses and was also to have a chairperson - without voting rights - to run the proceedings. Neither the applicant nor their doctor could be members of the committee. An applicant could represent themselves, be represented by their doctor, family or anyone they had asked. Binding was of the opinion "that it is quite possible for a person under the age of 18 or for the mentally ill" to decide whether they want to live or die.
After a committee had checked that a person fulfils the criteria, it could make a decision. For a decision to be final, it would have to be agreed upon by all three parties and must be made purely out of pity and the killing must be done painlessly. Any person could withdraw their application to be killed at any time, including after the decision had been finalised. In the case of an unconscious person or the mentally ill, Binding allowed the final decision to be made by the mother. If the family were willing to take on the person themselves or pay the costs of hospitalisation, the person would not be killed. In the case of a conscious person the person's wishes were to be respected regardless of the interests or requests of the family.
Killings without the jurisdiction of a committee
Binding also wanted to allow for killings that were not controlled by a committee. Such a killing would only be legal if the person killing had either acted with permission, or on the assumption that an unconscious person wanted to die. After the death a committee must be able to be satisfied that the killing fulfilled all of the usual requirements.Binding argued that although there is always a possibility of killing the wrong person, "that which is good and reasonable must take place irrespective of any possibility of error". He saw the risk of losing a life as unimportant because "humanity constantly loses so many lives by mistake, that just one more would hardly make a difference".
Publications by Binding
- Das burgundisch-romanische Königreich: Geschichte des burgundisch-romanischen Königreichs
- Entwurf eines Strafgesetzbuches für den Norddeutschen Bund
- Die Normen und ihre Übertretung. Eine Untersuchung über die rechtmäßige Handlung und die Arten des Delikts
- Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens, Hoche A, Binding, K. Felix Meiner Verlag, Leipzig, 1920 (2nd Edition 1922)
Publications about Binding
- Kaufmann, Arnim: Lebendiges und Totes in Bindings Normentheorie, Schwartz 1954
- Klaus-Peter Drechsel: Beurteilt Vermessen Ermordet. Praxis der Euthanasie bis zum Ende des deutschen Faschismus. Duisburg 1993, ISBN 3-927388-37-8
- Ernst Klee, «Euthanasie» im NS-Staat. Die «Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens», Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt a.M. 1985
- Rezension mit dem Titel „Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens“, verfaßt von Dr.F. Limacher aus Bern, Internationales Ärztliches Bulletin, Dezember 1934, Nummer 12 (Erscheinungsort: Prag), 181-183, hier 183, neu erschienen in Beiträge zur nationalsozialistischen Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik, Band 7, Internationales Ärztliches Bulletin, Jahrgang I-VI (1934-1939), Reprint, Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1989.
External links
- Die Freigabe der Vernichtung unwerten Lebens von Dr. Binding und Dr. Hoche 1920 at home.filternet.nl Original text (German)