Medicine and the Holocaust -- lessons for present and future physicians

Abstract

German medicine, under National Socialism, was broadly complicit in the conceptualization and promulgation of the Nazi social and racial policies, and as such, played an integral and pertinent role in the Nazi implementation of the tragedies during the Holocaust. Much of contemporary ethics can be seen as a response to the abuses of this era. Hence for medicine in general and medical research in particular, the Holocaust is the seminal event of the 20th century in the historiography of its ethics. Bioethicists have expounded on the moral lessons to be learned from the Nuremberg Trials. Ethical challenges, other than those relating to human experimentation, which have continuing relevance were not addressed at Nuremberg and shall be presented in this paper. Organized efforts to educate about the ethos of medicine in this historical context should be imperative for all medical students and students of other healthcare professions.