QUOTE : They argued that food and medical care are not everyone’s birthright but are properly earned by doing productive labor. They described disabled people as Lebensunwertes Leben (“life unworthy of life”), calling them “useless eaters” and “human ballast” who consume precious resources without repaying their debt to society. Ending the lives of these “empty human husks”—who were not even aware of the misery that they inflicted on others—was not only a socially beneficial act, Hoche and Binder claimed, it was the most compassionate thing that could be done under the circumstances.