Jews and other devalued and dehumanized groups were regarded as fitting “material” for medical and biological experiments that were forbidden under Germany’s Guidelines for Human Experimentation (1931) (details above). These included handicapped persons and numerous ethnic and groups who were expelled from German society. Foremost among these were Jews, who…
Physicians were not pawns of the Nazi regime; they legitimized mass murder. In contradiction to the myth perpetuated by both the German and American medical establishments; the vast majority of physicians and biological scientists lent their support to Racial Hygiene laws. They provided the “scientific” ideological justification for exterminating carriers…
Buchenwald Trial at Dachau, April 11 –August 14, 1947 Between July 1937 and April 1945, some 250,000 persons of 30 nationalities were imprisoned at various times at Buchenwald; by Feb. 1945, there were 112,000 prisoners at Buchenwald. It is estimated that about 56,000 were killed or died from starvation and…
Judgment at Nuremberg All sixteen Nazi doctors were found guilty; seven were sentenced to death and executed, nine were convicted and sentenced to prison, and seven were acquitted. Karl Gebhardt was found guilty of “crimes against humanity” and war crimes for his experimental atrocities at Ravensbrück and was hanged. His…
The revelations at Nuremberg were extremely discomforting to the American medical establishment: the sheer unprecedented scale of immorality of the Nazi doctors was staggering — and the potential of guilt by association. The fact that the American medical profession had also enthusiastically embraced eugenics; Americans provided financial support for Nazi…
Tom Koch PhD, is among the best known, most prolific writers you’ve probably never heard about. An ethicist, writer, and researcher specializing in the care of the fragile, he holds a multi-disciplinary PhD (medicine, ethics/philosophy, geography) from the University of British Columbia. In Toronto he serves as a medical ethicist…
Part 3 of 4. Though bioethicists self-consciously avoid using the term — because of its inextricable link to Nazi ideology. . . .
Part 2 of 4. The Medical Research Enterprise: a confluence of self-interest groups: government officials, academic researchers. . . .
“The OHRP and SUPPORT — Another View” by a group of 45 physicians, ethicists, and scholars in allied fields who have stepped up to the plate to express their support for OHRP’s determination. . . .
Recent developments in gene transfer research: risk and ethics Mon, 10 Jan 2005 An analysis by Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman, in the British Medical Journal provides an illuminating, clearly articulated discussion about the ethical dilemmas that challenge gene transfer experiments – essentially a kind of human genetic engineering involving somatic cells,…
Minnesota initiative: Compulsory newborn congenital testing Mon, 24 Mar 2003 The Minnesota House Health and Human Services Policy Committee will vote tomorrow on a law requiring the screening of every newborn baby to ascertain who may have a congenital disorder. It is important to note that this “public health” initiative…
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry Volume 7, Number 2, Summer 2005 pp. 111-124 Screening for Mental Illness: The Merger of Eugenics and the Drug Industry Vera Hassner Sharav, MLS New York, NY The implementation by the President’s New Freedom Commission (NFC) to screen the entire United States population – children…
