# Euthanasia on the Battlefield **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398 "2011-01-04T18:30:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398/21 "2011-01-06T14:23:25Z")
> [@Miltonyz](#): > > “All Quiet on the Western Front” a book set in WW1 has a very powerful scene where the main character and his friend try to provide aid to another soldier who has been hit by an artillery shell. As they are applying first aid they realize that the other soldier’s hip is shattered. Knowing that the wounded man is going to die, they draw their weapons intending on a mercy kill. They are joined by other soldiers before they shoot him and cannot do so. The book is classified as fiction but Remarque was in the thick of WW1. The first thing I thought of was the TV movie adaptation with Ernest Borgnine and the actor who played John-Boy in the Waltons. Only the unfortunate soldier hadn’t been hit by an artillery shell, he had inhaled gas and was hacking his lungs out with the most God-awful sound. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398/22 "2011-01-07T16:43:38Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > The idea of ‘triage’ (“tree- aahjj”)is pretty common, for military aid stations, but also anywhere else where there are lots of serious injuries and not enough medical staff to treat them all at once. (You can see them doing triage a lot in M_A_S\*H) The idea is you divide patients into three groups: those that are in good enough shape to wait for medical attention, those that can recover but only if they get attention immediately, and those that are probably hopeless even if they are treated quickly. You work on the second group, treat the first group when you have time, and let the third group die. > Tough job, but that’s what you’ve got to do it you want to save as many as you can. > > Anyway, it’s standard practice whenever there are too many wounded. As mentioned, the ‘M’ was generally used to say “this guy’s gotten morphine, don’t give him more or he might overdose”, which doesn’t really say anything about which triage group he might be in. i remember the mash tv series and triage and i \*thought \* i remember hearing during the series that it was only used during the korean war, not having been developed earlier. that being a tv series, it be completely fabricated. so, is that true, war historians among us? without taking the time to research it myself (lazy), does anybody know IF triage was used during the second world war? i have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![FasterThanMeerkats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@FasterThanMeerkats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FasterThanMeerkats)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398/23 "2011-01-07T17:47:05Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > that being a tv series, it be completely fabricated. so, is that true, war historians among us? without taking the time to research it myself (lazy), does anybody know IF triage was used during the second world war? i have no idea. Don’t have any cites, but wouldn’t the concept of triage would arise naturally, whether explicitly called that or not, the moment you have a limited number of medical personnel designated to treat a large number of wounded. I’d frankly be surprised if it hadn’t been practiced before WWII. Could be wrong though.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398/24 "2011-01-07T17:49:38Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Also, due to shortages, morphine wasn’t given out to many troops at all, and most operations (amputations for the most part) were simply done with nurses and other troops holding the patient down for the procedure. If the trauma and shock of getting shot didn’t do them in, often the trauma and shock of the operation did. I thought that most amputations were done as you described- Big men holding down the patient until the doctor was done with his work- but after I toured Chimborazo Hospital a couple of weeks ago, I learned that was not the case. While morphine was in short supply at times, chloroform was not. According to the displays and talking with the guide, there were not really that many of those gruesome amputations in the field. It was pretty much an assembly line: Patient is laid out on the table, given chloroform through a cloth or device made to keep the vapors on the patient (lest you end up with a surgeon knocked out on the floor), the procedure was done and stitched about the time the patient began to come around. Patient was removed, and the process began anew. The guide said that undoubtedly there were patients who had to have procedures done without benefit of anesthesia, but that they were very few and far between. It was very cool to see some of the instruments they used- Far from being crude devices, these were very finely made tools. Apparently there was a high demand for instruments that were made in France, as they were of higher quality than those made in the U.S. Doctors were very proud of the tools they collected, and had very ornate cases for them. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398/25 "2011-01-07T17:56:28Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > i remember the mash tv series and triage and i \*thought \* i remember hearing during the series that it was only used during the korean war, not having been developed earlier. > > that being a tv series, it be completely fabricated. so, is that true, war historians among us? without taking the time to research it myself (lazy), does anybody know IF triage was used during the second world war? i have no idea. [History of MASH units.](http://www.olive-drab.com/od_medical_treatment_mash.php) > [@](#): > > Standards for a MASH required that it was disassembled, loaded onto vehicles, and ready to depart on six hours notice. After arrival at its new destination, it was operational within four hours. **Each MASH operated five surgical tables in a shift with a highly organized system of managing shock patients.** An ambulance platoon was attached to each MASH to facilitate the rapid evacuation when post-operative recovery was complete. Additionally, four helicopters were attached to each MASH. They, in turn, were utilized for resupply, rapid patient delivery to the MASH, and comfortable evacuation from the MASH. I would presume this means triage. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398/26 "2011-01-07T18:10:05Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > does anybody know IF triage was used during the second world war? i have no idea. Modern triage was invented by the French in the first world war. Even before that though they were doing primitive sorts of triage. During the Civil War, if you were shot in the head, chest, or stomach, you were set aside and doped up with morphine so that the field doctors could work on people that they could actually save. The French triage system invented in WWI also drew heavily on principles that the French developed during the Napoleonic wars. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398/27 "2011-01-07T18:10:43Z")
Triage is used during all medical emergencies of sufficient scale, and has been used since WWI (and its principles were developed during the Napoleonic wars). **Quercus** ’s description is not inaccurate, but it’s better to say that transportation from the battlefield was rationed to those whose survival depended on it; those who would live, regardless of treatment, and those who would die, regardless of treatment, stayed at the front. Another consideration in triage is that the third group includes those whose injuries are bad enough to require constant attention. If a doctor or medic can’t treat you _and move on_, even starting treatment will eventually kill several who might have been saved. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-on-the-battlefield/566398.md?page=1)