Nazis and Diseases and Pretty Piano Sounds

I also had some things mulling around in my mind that I was unable to bring up in class today. The first thing relates to the comparison of the Villager trying to hide Jews from the Nazis to the case of the doctor (Wexler) lying to the woman about having Huntington’s disease. The second case involves the piano playing boy.

A Nazi officer knocks on the villager’s door and asks if he/she is hiding any Jews. If the villager lies and says that they are not hiding anyone then while there is a chance the lie will be found out and everyone involved will be killed, there is also the chance that nothing will be found out and no one will be killed. If the villager outs the Jews then the Jews will be killed.

In the Huntington’s case, the doctor lies to the woman and says that the woman does not have the disease. The doctor is then informed that if the woman had found out she had the disease she would have killed herself. She had no plans to kill herself if she found out she was disease free.

A large consideration in these cases is death. In the Nazi case the Jews will be killed regardless of their wishes. In the Huntington’s case it is the woman’s choice to kill herself; it is within her realm of control. The woman with the disease should have the opportunity to know what is going on in her life, and her autonomy should be respected. She should be allowed to make her own decision about her life. The Nazi case is not parallel because the Jews cannot decide whether they die or not because it is an external force that will be killing them. I think this distinction is important and brings out that these cases cannot be adequately compared.

The other thing I wanted to bring up was in the case of the boy being forced to play piano. It was said in class that if he is forced he will probably resist, or at least not reach his full potential. While this is highly probable, it is also possible that he could achieve his full potential. This is because there are situations where a child is so afraid of their parent, or just so eager to please them, that while they may not like playing piano they will try their hardest to achieve as much as they can just to placate or please their parent.