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Biomedical subjects

W E Seidelman

Publications and source records attributed to W E Seidelman.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Nuremberg lamentation: for the forgotten victims of medical science.

Fifty years after the Nuremberg medical trial there remain many unanswered questions about the role of the German medical profession during the Third Reich. Other than the question of human experimentation, important ethical challenges arising from medicine in Nazi Germany which have continuing relevance were not addressed at Nuremberg. The underlying moral question is that of the exercise of professional power and its impact on vulnerable people seeking medical care. Sensitisation to the obligations of professional power may be achieved by an annual commemoration and lament to the memory of the victims of medical abuse which would serve as a recurring reminder of the physician's vulnerability and fallibility.

Codes of Ethics↗

Whither Nuremberg?: medicine's continuing Nazi heritage.

The medical crimes of the Hitler regime are commonly perceived to have been committed by a few demonic physicians working in isolation from the mainstream of the German medicine. The success of this myth has imperiled the value system of medicine today. The World Medical Association (WMA), established to address the ethical challenges arising from the German tragedy, has itself been compromised by this legacy. The leadership of the WMA has included doctors once associated with the Nazi SS terror organization and linked to crimes prosecuted at Nuremberg. Despite these recent revelations the WMA has yet to address the ethical issues raised by its own Nazi heritage or to pay homage to the victims of the Nazi regime.

Biomedical Research↗

Medical selection: Auschwitz antecedents and effluent.

Medical selection in Auschwitz represents the penultimate application of the traditional paradigm of medicine: the physician as gatekeeper and decision maker. The historical evolution of that role is considered in the context of public health, medical police, quarantine, and immigration. In Nazi Germany the physician was assigned responsibility for selection on behalf of the state. The ethical implications of medical selection are considered in the context of medicine today in an age of sophisticated biotechnology, constrained resources, and an aging population; an age in which the medical profession has yet to establish a fundamental system of values.

Complicity↗

Pete Rose disease.

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Compulsive Behavior↗

Mengele medicus: medicine's Nazi heritage.

Nazi medicine is commonly considered to be an aberration that began and ended with the horrors of the Hitler regime. But its beginnings were more gradual and its legacy is more pernicious. Data derived from research conducted on unknowing and unwilling subjects in death camps continue to be cited in authoritative contemporary medical literature. Nazi medicine has become a part of the professional genotype of modern medicine. This continuing influence of Nazi medicine raises profound questions for the epistemology and morality of medicine.

Aerospace Medicine↗