Medicine and the Holocaust: Learning More of the Lessons
Authors: Barron H. Lerner
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (1995)

Editorials15 May 1995Medicine and the Holocaust: Learning More of the LessonsBarron H. Lerner, MD and David J. Rothman, PhDBarron H. Lerner, MDColumbia University; New York, NY 10032 and David J. Rothman, PhDColumbia University; New York, NY 10032Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-122-10-199505150-00010 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail It is no exaggeration to declare that the greatest blot on the record of medicine in the 20th century is the role played by German physicians in the Nazi era. At the postwar trial at Nuremberg, the court found 15 German physicians guilty of war crimes and sentenced 7 of them to death [1]. After the trial, the German medical establishment carefully cultivated the theory that the violations that had occurred were the acts of this handful of physicians working in a few notorious concentration camps [2]. Until the mid-1960s, most commentators accepted this version of the events. Not the ...References1. Annas GJ, Grodin MA, eds. The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation. New York: Oxford Univ Pr; 1992:94-107. Google Scholar2. Wickler D, Barondess J. Bioethics and anti-bioethics in light of Nazi medicine: what must we remember? Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. 1993; 3:39-55. Google Scholar3. Lifton RJ. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. New York: Basic Books; 1986. Google Scholar4. Muller-Hill B. Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies and Others, Germany 1933-1945. Oxford: Oxford Univ Pr; 1988. Google Scholar5. Proctor R. Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univ Pr; 1988. Google Scholar6. Kater MH. Doctors under Hitler. Chapel Hill: Univ of North Carolina Pr; 1989. Google Scholar7. Pross C. 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Ethics and clinical research. N Engl J Med. 1966; 274:1354-60. Google Scholar23. Quill TE, Cassel CK, Meier DE. Care of the hopelessly ill. Proposed clinical criteria for physician-assisted suicide. N Engl J Med. 1992; 327:1380-4. Google Scholar24. Physician participation in capital punishment. Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, American Medical Association. JAMA. 1993; 270:365-8. Google Scholar25. Rodwin MA. Conflicts in managed care. N Engl J Med. 1995; 332:604-7. Google Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAuthors: Barron H. Lerner, MD; David J. Rothman, PhDAffiliations: Columbia University; New York, NY 10032Corresponding Author: Barron H. Lerner, MD, Center for the Study of Society and Medicine, Columbia University, 650 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032.Grant Support: Dr. Lerner is an Arnold P. Gold Foundation Assistant Professor of Medicine. 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Caplan, PhDApologising for Nazi medicine: too little too latePhysician Participation in Capital PunishmentA tribute to Italian physiologists of Jewish descent evicted during the persecution ordered by the Fascist Regime in 1938Re: Psychiatry in the Nazi EraFirst do no harmFirst do no harmThe tainted legacy of Hans ReiterJAGS, Volume One, 1953Lost and (not yet) foundKilling in the name of healing: The active role of the german medical profession during the third reichMedicine and the HolocaustNathan Schnaper, MDMedicine and the HolocaustJeremiah M. Gelles, MD 15 May 1995Volume 122, Issue 10 Page: 793-794 Keywords Attention Cyclic adenosine monophosphate Euthanasia Jewish people Malaria Medical ethics Medical services Memory Racial and ethnic issues Suicide ePublished: 15 August 2000 Issue Published: 15 May 1995 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 1995 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...