Ethical and Scientific Legacy of the Nazi Medical CrimesSemester Course

In this course we trace the intellectual roots of Nazi medicine, such as the concept of racial hygiene, which influenced Western medical thinking and practice even before Nazi Germany. We address the ethics of using knowledge and concepts left to us still by the Nazis, including Asperger’s syndrome and our knowledge of hypothermia, which came about after inhumane experimentations. We delve into case studies, covering some of the reasoning of doctors to accept and implement the Nazi medical thinking and discuss more contemporary medical experimentations in comparison.