TY - JOUR T1 - Whose life is it anyway? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 664 LP - 664 DO - 10.3399/bjgp08X342147 VL - 58 IS - 554 AU - Helen Lester Y1 - 2008/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/58/554/664.abstract N2 - The St. Louis sailed out of Hamburg for Havana at 8 p.m. on Saturday 13 May 1939. Its 937 passengers were mainly German Jewish refugees seeking asylum from a Nazi state that intended to dispossess, transport, and systematically kill them. However when the ship arrived in Havana harbour, the Cuban government disagreed on how much they could charge the passengers to come ashore. All except 29 — those with Cuban and Spanish passports — were refused asylum. Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Argentina, the US and Canada were each then approached but declined to accept the refugees.As the ship began the return voyage, the British Government was contacted to see if it would consider offering asylum to the now 900 passengers. The initial response was that the Government would prefer to consider possible subsequent entry once the … ER -