Moritz Nestor
“I am a very old man who, in many respects, is no longer in control of myself,” wrote Fulbert Steffensky, born in 1933, in his twilight years for the calendar entry for 10 December 2025.1 In 1968, he was one of the co-founders of the “Political Evening Prayer”. At that time, the Vietnam War was raging. And the “Cologne Ecumenical Working Group” (Dorothee Sölle, Fulbert Steffensky, Heinrich Böll and others) submitted a request to the organisers of the “Essen Catholic Day” for a “political service” on the subject of the Vietnam War.
When the organisers scheduled the service for 11 pm in an attempt to marginalise it, the Ecumenical Working Group promptly renamed the event “Political Evening Prayer”. From October 1968 onwards, it took place monthly at 8.30 pm in the Protestant Antoniterkirche in Cologne. My generation still remembers it well. What hopes were pinned on it as a way of standing up to the fury of war! More than half a century later, the now very elderly Fulbert Steffensky looks back on his eventful life as he writes these words on Human Rights Day:
«I am a very old person who, in many ways, is no longer in control of myself. I walk very slowly now; I often stumble and occasionally fall. I lose my bearings and get lost. I forget the names of people who are dear to me and close to me. In short: I am finding it increasingly difficult to get through life on my own.»2
“My God, I don’t want to end up that helpless!” exclaimed a dear friend to whom I was reading this text aloud, “I’d rather …” He didn’t finish the sentence. But we both knew what he meant: the campaign for “euthanasia” in Switzerland, which has been going on for more than thirty years, has left a deep mark on people’s minds. Fulbert Steffensky’s text, however, takes an almost surprising turn:
«Part of human freedom is the ability and the nobility to let go. A lovely old word: to let go. Not to insist on being content with oneself. I need compassionate people who, through their help, make my old age bearable and endearing. People who are capable of compassion are beautiful people. A person who is aware of more than just themselves, who suffers for more than just themselves, is a beautiful person. A person who is not solely preoccupied with themselves is a free person. And so it is true that compassion is the beauty of humanity.»
What a bastion of hope against the new “euthanasia” since the early 1980s. One of the first proponents of the “new euthanasia” at that time was the leading neoliberal politician and Foucault disciple Jacques Attali, who drove a major bank into ruin and is regarded as the “kingmaker” behind three French presidents: If a person lives longer than they produce, Attali said, they cost society too much. It is therefore better for the “human machine” (Attali) to come to a standstill. Attali was chief of staff to the French President François Mitterrandduring the latter’s time as General Secretary of the Socialist Party. François Hollande, who later became Prime Minister, Laurent Fabius and Ségolène Royal were his assistants. Following Mitterrand’s election in 1981, Attali became his closest adviser at the Élysée, with an office right next to the President’s. At the WEF, he is a key figure on health issues.
Anyone who finds this hard to believe should read Jacques Attali in the original. In 1981, in an interview with Michel Salomon (“Medicine in the Dock”), he uttered the following appalling words:
«[…] with a life expectancy of more than 60 or 65 years, man lives longer than he produces, and costs society dearly society. […] In fact, from society’s point of view, it is better for the human machine to come to a screeching halt rather than deteriorating. […] Euthanasia will have to be an essential instrument of our future societies, in all cases. To begin with, from a socialist perspective, the problem presents itself as follows: the logic of socialism is freedom, and the fundamental freedom is suicide; consequently, the right to direct or indirect suicide is an absolute value in this form of society. In a capitalist society, on the other hand, killing machines will emerge […], making it possible to extinguish life when it has become too unbearable or economically too costly, and these machines will be commonplace. In my view, therefore, euthanasia – whether it is regarded as a value of freedom or as a commodity – will be one of the rules governing future societies.»3
Is the historical experience of “euthanasia” prior to 1945 not enough? The Nazi Euthanasia Act of 1940 was in fact called the “Law on Euthanasia”. It was shelved until after the “final victory”. Its article 1 is virtually indistinguishable from today’s “euthanasia” texts:
«§ 1 Anyone suffering from an incurable illness which causes severe distress to themselves or others, or which is certain to lead to death, may, at their express request and with the authorisation of a specially authorised doctor, receive euthanasia from a doctor.»4
When the “euthanasia” doctors stood trial in 1946–47, Karl Brandt, Hitler’s personal physician, Major-General of the Waffen-SS and General Commissioner for Medical and Health Services, said:
«The underlying principle was this: to offer help to people who cannot help themselves and who are eking out an existence in excruciating suffering. […] If we speak openly about this issue of euthanasia and endeavour to understand one another on the basis of a serious assessment of the facts, then, in my opinion, a way forward will also be found for the future.»5
Such scenes from history still struck fear into the hearts of my generation in the late 1960s and 1970s, particularly when we witnessed the emergence of the new form of “euthanasia” in the 1980s and 1990s.
Further reading
Attali, Jacques. “Medizin auf der Anklagebank” (Medicine in the Dock). In: Salomon, Michel (ed.). The Future of Life. Vienna/Hamburg 1981 (French edition: Salomon, Michel (ed.). L’Avenir de la Vie. Edition Seghers, Paris 1981)
Mitscherlich, Alexander; Mielke, Fred. Medizin ohne Menschlichkeit: Dokumente des Nürnberger Ärzteprozesses (Medicine Without Humanity: Documents from the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial), Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. 1962.
Roth, Karl Heinz (ed.) Erfassung zur Vernichtung (Registration for Extermination), Berlin 1984
Steffensky, Fulbert. Andere Zeiten (Other Times), Calendar, Hamburg 2025
1 Steffensky, 10 December 2025
2 ibid.
3 Attali, 1981
4 Roth, 1984
5 Mitscherlich/Mielke, 1962
