Medicine Ethics and the Third Reich: Historical and Contemporary Issues

by John J. Michalczyk (Editor)

Medical experimentation on human subjects during the Third Reich raises deep moral and ethical questions. This volume features prominent voices in the filed of bioethics reflecting on a wide rang of topics and issues. Amid all contemporary discussions of ethical in science, many ethicists, historians, Holocaust specialists and medical professionals strongly feel that we should understand the past in order to make more enlightened ethical decisions.

Genres: Holocaust, History, War, Nonfiction, Essays

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

Reviews

[Beverley Chalmers]

A great reference resource. Was very helpful when writing my own work on medicine and women's experiences during the Holocaust

[Leora Wenger]

This is an intense book. If you only have time for a few essays, take a look at the one by Jay Katz (he gets quoted by a few other authors) called The Concentration Camp Experiments: Their Relevance for Contemporary Research with Human Beings. Historical Origins of the Nuremberg Code by Michael A. Grodin can give you some good background. Michael J. Franzblau's essay called Relevance of Nazi Medical Behavior to the Health Profession Today would be good for starting a general discussion in a classroom.

Finally, please read Eva Kor's personal story about her torture by Mengele. Why did NBC never air her story? Why was she threatened by the U.S. Justice Department? Why was her sister harassed by the Israeli government?