Volk

One such theorist, Adolf Jost, issued an early call for direct medical killing in a book published in 1895 and significantly entitled  "The Right to Death" (Das Recht auf den Tod). Jost argued that control over the death of the individual must ultimately belong to the social organism, the state. This concept is in direct opposition to the Anglo-American tradition of euthanasia, which emphasizes the individual’s "right to die" or "right to death" or "right to his or her own death," as the ultimate human claim. In contrast, Jost was pointing to the state’s right to kill. While he spoke of compassion and relief of suffering of the incurably ill, his focus was mainly on the health of the Volk and the state. He pointed out that the state already exercises those "rights" in war, where thousands of individuals are sacrificed for the good of the state. Ultimately the argument was biological: "The rights to death [are] the key to the fitness of life.  "The state must own death--must kill--in order to keep the social organism alive and healthy.

--"The Nazi Doctors" by Robert Jay Lifton, page 46