Rels 300 / Nurs 330

7 October 2015

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Aryan racial purity

Hitler became the Chancellor of the Third Reich in 1933

his National Socialist Party passed a law designed to improve the Aryan race

law allowed physicians to sterilize people who were "in any way visibly sick or who have inherited a disease and can therefore pass it on”

200,000 to 350,000 people were sterilized due to mental conditions (mental deficiency, schizophrenia, manic depressive insanity), epilepsy, Huntington's chorea and hereditary alcoholism, hereditary blindness, hereditary deafness, grave bodily malformations and "crippled" states such as club foot, cleft palate and harelip

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Hartheim Castlewas a

"euthanasia" killing center

(Hartheim, Austria)

Between December 1939 and August 1941:

50,000 to 60,000 Germans

children and adults

physically and mentally disabled were secretly killed by lethal injections or in gas chambers designed to look like shower stalls

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Cemetery at Hadamar

where“euthanasia”

victims were buried

Victims included:

80-100,000 adult mental patients from institutions

5,000 children in institutions

1,000 Jews in institutions

20,000 concentration camp inmates transported to killing centers

70,000 patients gassed

20,000 died of starvation or due to medication

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Sterilization

experiments

March 1941 to January 1945:

sterilization experiments were conducted at the Auschwitz and Ravensbrueck concentration camps

purpose: to develop a method of sterilization which would be suitable for sterilizing thousands of people with a minimum of time and effort

eugenic surgical sterilization (used in the institutions) took too much time and cost too much

sterilization experiments used X-rays, surgery, chemicals and drugs

thousands of victims were sterilized and thereby suffered great mental and physical anguish

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Genocide of non-

Aryans & physically

and mentally

disabled…

A Gypsy at Auschwitz

…by means of extermination and sterilization

castration by means of x-rays

medicinal sterilization caladium seguinum

chemical sterilization Jewish & Gypsy women

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Genetic experiments on twins:

Josef Mengele

3000 twins underwent “genetic” experiments

only 200 survivedalso midgets, dwarves & hunchbacksexperimental surgeries without anesthesia; blood transfusions from one to other twin; isolation endurance; injections with lethal germs; sex change operations; organ & limb removals; eye drops to change colour

kill and autopsy both twins

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Eva and Miriam Mozes

The Stern sisters – twin survivors;

later in life, in Israel

founded CANDLES: Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Laboratory Experiments Survivors

the story of Eva & Miriam Mozes

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/july-13-2007/holocaust-forgiveness-advocate-eva-kor/3126

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High Altitude experiments

Dachau concentration camp

research for the German Air Force

to investigate the limits of human endurance and existence at extremely high altitudes

used a low-pressure chamber in which atmospheric conditions and pressures prevailing at high altitude (up to 68,000 feet) could be duplicated

subjects were placed in the low-pressure chamber; the simulated altitude was raised

many victims died as a result of these experiments and others suffered grave injury

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A prisoner in a compression chamber loses consciousness (and later dies) during an experiment to determine altitudes at which aircraft crews could

survive without oxygen

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Dachau

Hypothermi

a

Experiments

investigate the most effective means of treating persons who had been severely chilled or frozen

subjects were forced to remain in a tank of ice water for periods up to 3 hours

extreme rigor developed in a short time; many victims died

survivors were subject to rewarming attempts

other subjects were kept naked outdoors for many hours at temperatures below freezing

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Malaria

Experiment

s

February 1942 to April 1945

experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp

purpose: to investigate immunization for and treatment of malaria

healthy concentration-camp inmates infected by mosquitoes or by injections of extracts of the mucous glands of mosquitoes

subjects who contracted malaria were treated with various drugs to test their relative efficacy

over 1,000 involuntary subjects were used in these experiments

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Mustard

Gas

Experiment

s

September 1939 to April 1945

experiments were conducted in concentration camps for the benefit of the German Armed Forces

to investigate the most effective treatment of wounds caused by mustard gas

wounds were deliberately inflicted on subjects, then infected with gas

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The Doctors Trial,

held in Nuremberg, Germany,

from 9 December 1946 to

20 August 1947

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24 defendants

were charged

with

(1) crimes

against peace,

(2) war crimes,

(3) crimes

against

humanity, and

(4) conspiracy

Representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France acted as prosecutors and judges

Count #(3) included “medical experiments, without the subjects' consent, upon German civilians and nationals of other countries, in the course of which experiments the defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts”

12 sentenced to death

3 sentenced to life imprisonment

4 sentenced to prison terms

ranging from 10 to 20 years

3 acquitted of charges

2 committed suicide prior to

the trial or before sentencing

http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/three.htm

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Defendants claimed that “no international law

or informal statement

differentiated between legal and

illegal human experimentation.”

http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/code_expl.htm

Was it permissible to undertake medical experiments on human

persons?

“certain types of medical experiments on human beings . . . conform to the

ethics of the medical profession generally . . . such experiments yield

results for the good of society that are unprocurable by other methods or means of study . . . However . . .

certain basic principles must be observed in order to satisfy moral,

ethical and legal concepts” http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/Nuremberg_Code.htm

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THE NUREMBERG CODE 1947

1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.

legal capacity to give consent

able to exercise free power of choice

no force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion

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sufficient knowledge and comprehension to make an understanding and enlightened decision

nature, duration, purpose of experiment

method & means of its conduct inconveniences and hazards

reasonably expected effects upon health or person from

participation

personal responsibility for ensuring voluntary consent rests on every individual person involved in conducting the experiment

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2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.

3. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results will justify the performance of the experiment.

http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/irb/irb_appendices.htm#j5

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4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.

5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects

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6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.

7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death.

http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/irb/irb_appendices.htm#j5

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8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment.

9. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seemed to him to be impossible.

http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/irb/irb_appendices.htm#j5

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10. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.

http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/irb/irb_appendices.htm#j5

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1. …voluntary consent…no force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching…constraint or coercion…knowledge…comprehension

2. …yield fruitful results for the good of society3. …based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural

history of the disease… justify the… experiment4. …avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury5. no experiment… death or disabling injury…except…where the experimental

physicians also serve as subjects6. …degree of risk… should never exceed…the humanitarian importance of the

problem7. …protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury,

disability, or death8. …experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons9. …the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end10.…terminate the experiment at any stage, if… likely to result in injury, disability, or

death to the experimental subject