Medicine and Nazism, learn from history
Medical experiments
Nazi doctors arranged in the concentration and extermination fields of thousands of people deprived of liberty who were used as experimentation subjects. The experiments carried out in the fields had as common features the perversity and contempt of the will of the subjects. Mass sterilizations were performed, exposure to extreme environmental situations (pressure, temperature, ultraviolet rays, salted water feed), toxic, gases, incendiary and explosive pumps, investigating chemical and biological weapons.
It was experienced with medications, sera, vaccines, disease inoculation, artificially infected wounds and supporting surgery methods. Although Joseph Mengele is known for studies with dwarves and twins, he also investigated the Noma and certain aspects of tuberculosis. In some cases unnecessary surgeries were performed, and the bodies were used not only to study brains, skeletons and skulls, but possibly also to illustrate an anatomical atlas.
At the beginning of the 20th century, and especially between 1933 and 1945, there was a perverse use of scientific and medical knowledge. Some of them were used for the identification, selection, segregation and extermination of certain people. Current scientific advances face the doctor with dilemmas that could already be present in the Nazi period.
The knowledge of the human genome, cloning and research with stem cells, has beneficial uses but can also have them perverse. In health systems that are only looking for efficiency, diagnostic treatments, resources or media depending on the age or status of the patient can be rationalized. Doctors can be required to use their knowledge for the benefit of the State for experimentation with chemical, biological weapons, confession by psychological or pharmacological means or even participate in executions through lethal injection. In an attempt to improve their economic, academic or other aspirations, doctors can be tempted to collaborate in non -ethical research or actions. There is a current of opinion that requires the withdrawal of the daily clinical language of eponyms that honor doctors who did not have adequate behavior with patients.
Through the analysis of the role played by doctors and other professionals in the Holocaust, many bioethical dilemmas of daily assistance can be put "human face". It can also be verified that even in critical situations professionals continue to fulfill their obligations. Doctors can know through the knowledge of the Holocaust the implications of assistance to survivors and even descendants of victims of genocides, catastrophes and armed conflicts.
The role played by certain professionals in the Holocaust and in Nazism should, in line with the stocolm declaration to be included as an object of study in educational systems and within the health professions (medicine, nursing, dentistry, psychology) and notHealth (Law, Social Work, Physical and Sports Education Sciences, Biology). The study and analysis of the Holocaust allows to acquire and transmit values such as tolerance, not discrimination, fight against xenophobia, racism and anti -Semitism, respect, proper use of medical technology and beneficial research for humanity. It can be a means that helps to train professionals who avoid the repetition of facts that embarrass the human being in general and doctors in particular.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- González-López, e. (2010). Medicine and Nazism. Learn from history [PDF version]. Clinical Magazine, 199-203. Obtained from File: /// C:/Users/User/Downloads/S0014256511000543%20 (5).PDF
Leave feedback