Spheres of Altruism

I'd treat him. I'd be in violation of the Hippocratic Oath if I didn't. That wasn't the focus of my comments. Plugging all this into medicine requires a higher altruism on the part of the physician and in the clinic I would be obliged to help this man any way I could. I would have to abandon any pretenses and seek the health of the individual. I have no qualms about operating in that neutral vacuum. But I would likely avoid him otherwise.

Medicine transcends all the politics of this issue. (Think of the Red Cross--they treat people on the battlefield and elsewhere that they don't support or particularly agree with--and have done so for years.) If this man showed up in the ER or in my clinic I would not hesitate to offer him the best care I could...

I guess the distillation of what I think is that I don't think a known Nazi prison guard (a true member of the infamous Waffen-SS) hiding his identity and "hiding behind a panel under the basement stairs at his family's home" deserves much more than deportation. Of course I am not a judge, but I don't have to be a judge to have a very strong opinion of this man and his past. I support the decision that the judges (those who really have the authority to deport this man) have made.

I suppose his choice to participate in barbaric genocide compromised his own humanity to some extent. I think most people would describe people like Johann as "monsters," a term devoid of humanity. I mean, how much innocent life do you have to snuff out before your own life is subject to drastic, irreversible consequences?

All criminals maintain their humanity. It doesn't change the fact that they should answer for what they have done. I do NOT believe that a man like Mr. Leprich should enjoy the freedoms of a nation that: 1) he fought against in the World War, 2) affords its citizens the rights that he was taking from the Jews, 3) "hold[s] these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I think Johann was under the impression that all men and women were created equal, unless of course they weren't Aryan.

There are consequences to choices made in life. In medicine, we don't concern ourselves with them. We gladly treat the masses--the rapists, DUI-ers, murderers, and robbers alike. Yet as a citizen of this nation I think deportation of a man obviously hiding from his dark, sinister past is entirely appropriate. I think the fact that Romania, Hungary and Germany also refused to accept him sends a strong message about the world's tolerance, even still, for what happened in Germany in the 1940's.