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Introduction to Bioethics

1. Identify the ethical issues in Nazi experiment’s cases (at least 2).
The following are the most evident ethical issues seen in the Nazi’s Human Experiments during the
holocaust:

 Right to Dignity, wherein the patient's dignity, culture and value are all respected at during
medical care. This was evidently violated during the Holocaust since the prisoners captured by
the Nazis, which included the Jews from captured countries such as France, Poland, Russian as
well as homosexuals and political prisoners such as communists, socialist and trade unionist.
According to Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, the Jews, specifically, were deemed undesirable
and thus, should be exterminated through the cultural and religious genocide of their race
through the Endlösung or the Final Solution. Due to this, Germany and German-occupied
countries were summoned to arrest all Jews who were then brought to concentration camps
wherein they were killed, forced to work or forced to participate in human experimentation. As
we see here, Jews were dehumanized during World War Two wherein their human rights were
stripped off of them. This gave the German medical field, physicians and researchers, alike, the
opportunity to test on human subjects as they disregarded the possible ethical dilemmas it may
entail towards these subjects. The question wherein whether or not the patient’s dignity and
value were set aside as they greedily pursuit inhumane experiments in their hopes to perfect
the Aryan race which they seemed desirable. This is seen as an ethical dilemma since Jews were
automatically labeled as the undesired whose only destiny was death even if they were also
humans, similar to the Nazis, only differing in their religion and beliefs.
 Right to Refuse Participation in Medical Research, wherein the patient is obliged to know the
objectives and goals of the research study wherein he/she is a subject for observation and
documentation, especially if it can involves affecting his/her condition and his/her treatment
and care plan. It should also be noted that the proposed involvement of the subject for
research can only take place upon the patient’s consent. Putting this in the ethical context
during the Holocaust, German medical physicians and researches willingly placed thousands of
holocausts prisoners, especially the Jews, under medical research through inhumane human
experiments without them knowing and without ensuring their safety after these experiments
since they caused instant death, disfigurement, lifelong trauma and disabilities. Jewish prisoners
who were selected for human experiments were usually separated from the other prisoners at
the concentration camps. Sometimes they were given better treatment but with a price to pay
since German doctors wanted to ensure that these subjects were healthy and fit before
experimentation. This was the case for German physician Josef Mengele’s obsession with twin
experimentation wherein he would transfuse blood from one twin to another, inject them with
diseases to see the effects or amputate their limbs for the purposes of science. This is seen to be
an ethical dilemma because these prisoners had no say whether to approve or reject undergoing
an experiment. They were automatically labeled as subjects for research.

2. What is the result based on the Nuremberg code in this case?

Result of Medical Care based on the Nuremberg Code
The Nuremberg trials which included the doctor’s trials that began on the 9 th of December 1946 until the
20th of August 1847. Out of the 23 Nazi health personnel who were put to trial, 20 were medical
physicians who were in subjugated due to their involvement in the human experimentation of holocaust
prisoners wherein seven Nazi doctors were executed, nine were imprisoned and seven were acquitted.
Due to the immense outcry brough by the Final Solution wherein Germans sought out concentration
camps for the sole purpose of causing religious genocide as well as allowing human experimentation on
Jewish prisoners in the means to enhance their Aryan Race, the global population did not ever want this
to happen again in the whole history of humanity. Thus, to ensure the safety of all humans, regardless of
race, religion, culture, gender and age, the Nuremberg Code was established as ethical guidelines in
order to protect all people from forced human experimentation and the exploitation it implies.
Moreover, it enhanced the basic human rights known at that time. It also emphasized that not only was
consent from a potential prospect essential, but more importantly, the process of future experiments
should avoid any type of injury as it should not be conducted if it can cause permanent disability od
death. Furthermore, the risks of an experimentation should never outweigh the benefits since it should
only be done for the greater good of the society.