Editing Action T4 (section)

== Implementation ==
At the time of the Nazi Party's election, eugenics and the prevention of those considered defective from reproducing was a large talking point due to the actions of those such as [[Harry Laughlin]]. In 1933, Nazi Minister of the Interior [[Wilhelm Frick]] passed the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, a law prescribing the involuntary sterilisation of those with conditions such as Huntingdon's Disease and schizophrenia that were believed to be hereditary, thus paving the way for Nazi eugenics. It is estimated that 360, 000 were sterilised under the law. Around the time that the law was passed, Nazi Party leader [[Adolf Hitler]] began to consider the killing of those who were mentally ill or disabled, as testified by Brandt, [[Hans Lammers]] and [[Gerhard Wagner]]. He also informed Lammers and [[Leonardo Conti]] that he wanted the mentally ill exterminated during a 1939 conference.

Action T4 began in July 1939, when Gerhard Kretschmar, a boy with severe developmental disabilities, was euthanised on Brandt's orders at the behest of Hitler. Soon after, Hitler signed the "euthanasia order", authorising Bouhler and Brandt to begin the killing of those deemed "defective".