University of Hull - Nursing for good and evil

A nursing conference last week considered the parallels between euthanasia in Nazi Germany and "mercy killing" today. Research being presented by two professors at the Royal College of Nursing annual research conference in Liverpool looked at the similarities between Hitler's drive to create a "master race" and today's talk of designer babies. Linda Shields from the University of Hull and Susan Benedict at the University of South Carolina found that nurses in the Third Reich were absolved of any wrongdoing because they were perceived to have a caring role. Meanwhile, last year a US court dismissed murder charges against a physician and two nurses for administering lethal drug injections to four seriously ill patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.