Running head: NAZI MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

Nazi Medical Experiments

Vida Kwofie
&
Eleanor Chance
Coppin State University
Family Nurse Practitioner Program
Nursing Ethics-Nurs. 500
Dr. Obiako
July 17, 2014

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Nazi Medical experiments

Introduction
During World War II, Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialists German Workers
Party (Nazi), became Chancellor of Germany from 1934-1945. During this time Hitler passed the
Enabling Act, which coupled with the Reichstag Fire Decree gave Hitlers government full
dictatorship rule over Germany. Hitlers anti-communist and anti-Semitism views led to
genocide of approximately 6 million Jewish people (Witherbee, 2009). It is during this time that
Nazi German Medical Doctors performed the Nazi Medical Experiments. The medical
experiments were a group of unethical medical studies conducted on Jewish concentration camp
prisoners, Gypsies and African Americans (Cohen, 2010).
These studies were performed without consent and held no regard for human safety.
Participants were subjected to torturous conditions that often resulted in death. While some of the
Nazi experiments were performed with legitimate aims to advance German medicine, others
were racially driven with goals to reinforce Nazi racial theories (Cohen, 2010). According to
Cohen (2010) following World War II, leading Nazi doctors were brought to justice before the
International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Twenty three doctors were charged with war
crimes and crimes against humanity. The trails detailed the inhumane acts committed against
participants and highlighted the violations of human rights that occurred during the experiments.
This subsequently led to the institution of The Nuremberg Code, which is currently used to guide
biomedical practice and research today (Cohen, 2010).

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Background and Purpose

Burns and Groove (2010) states that because of the inhumane treatment of subjects in
medical research in the 1940s Holocaust, ethical conduct of research has been a principal focus
in all medical research programs. The purpose of this paper is to review the Nazi medical
experiment in detail using current literature on the subject. In addition, this paper will highlight
the issues surrounding the unethical principles of the experiments and demonstrate the
significance of these events to the introduction and evolution of the Nuremberg Codes.
Literature Review
Cohen (2010) reveals that Dachau, Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Sachsenhaz
concentration camps were the places where the so called medical experiments took place.
Although the experiments were done in the name of biomedical science, all of them were found
to be unethical in nature. Prisoners were forced to participate in studies against their will and
nearly all of them endured pain, mutilation, and in most cases death (Cohen, 2010). Cohen
(2010) classifies the experiments into three categories, medico-military, miscellaneous or ad hoc
experiments, and racially motivated experiments.
Medico-military experiments
Medico-military experiments were performed under Doctor Sigmund Raschers
command. They were conducted to mimic and gain insight of conditions faced by German
soldiers during World War II (Cohen, 2010). These experiments included The Freezing
experiments, High Altitude experiments, The Sulfalimide experiments, Sea Water experiments,
and the Tuberculosis experiments. During the Freezing experiments, prisoners were submerged

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into freezing cold water to evaluate how long downed German pilots could survive in the North
Sea (Cohen, 2010). The water temperature was made to mimic the freezing temperature of the
North Sea and Rascher recorded the victims response to the freezing waters. Participants often
suffered injuries related to shock and eighty to ninety percent of those subjected to these
conditions died (Cohen, 2010). The High Altitude experiments were conducted by Dr. Rascher as
well. These were done to examine the best ways to rescue German pilots from low atmospheric
pressures after aircraft wreckage. Subjects were placed in decompression chambers to simulate
the high altitude conditions faced by pilots (Cohen, 2010).
Dr. Eppinger performed the Sea water experiments where he gave unaltered sea water to
Gypsie prisoners to test the sea waters portability. These experiments led to severe dehydration
and resulted in death of several prisoners (Cohen, 2010). The discovery of sulfanilamide offered
the possibility to treat wound related infections. Nazi doctors simulated wounds similar to those
obtained by soldiers on Jewish prisoners and deliberately infected the wounds with bacteria and
debris. They also interrupted blood flow to create conditions similar to that of battlefield wounds.
This often led to loss of limbs and scarring of participants (Cohen, 2010). Furthermore, Prisoners
were injected with live tuberculosis bacilli (TB) to evaluate the bodys natural immunity TB
(Cohen, 2010).
Miscellaneous/ ad hoc experiments
Cohen (2010) states that the Nazis also conducted wound and poison experiments that
held no scientific value and were done mainly to torture prisoners. Russian prisoners were given
phenol gasoline and cyanide through intravenous route to evaluate how quickly they would
expire. Prisoners limbs were amputated to test blood coagulants by observing the rate of blood
loss from fresh amputations. Amputations were done on awake prisoners with no pain

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medications and amputated limbs were unsuccessfully implanted onto German soldiers (Cohen,
2010).
Racially motivated experiments
The racially motivated experiments were done to improve the German race and
annihilated the Jewish and non- German population. The Nazi experiments were an unthinkable
violation of health ethics. Strous (2008) narrates how the Nazi regime in Germany used
sterilization and euthanasia against the Jewish mentally ill. The facts of the events reveal that the
Jewish mentally ill were targeted for these horrific medical abuses. They were murdered using
medical programs that were branded as experiments. The physicians during this era threw their
medical ethics training to the wind and became involved in large scale health abuses.
These bad intentioned medical experiments were designed to kill the mentally ill Jewish
population in large numbers. The Jewish mentally ill patients did not enjoy any health
protections since the very physicians who were expected to protect them by virtue of their
training and the oath of the medical profession not to do any harm became the same people who
were behind the medical experiments which killed the Jewish mentally ill patients. These sad
events show a dark period for medical ethics.
Strous (2008) writes that the approaches used to target and abuse the Jewish mentally ill
by the Nazi involved four processes. These are public assistance withdrawal, hospital treatment
limitations, sterilization, and murder. The Nazi initiated their cruelty against the Jews by first
denying public assistance to the Jews. They classified the Jewish patients as unworthy of public
help and this violated the health code of providing care to vulnerable patients. They also limited
hospital treatment for patients. This is a clear violation of the health code of providing the best

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care to patients. Nursing ethical codes require practicing nurses to provide the best care to
patients. Anything short of this standard is a violation of health ethical standards and therefore
unacceptable. The Nazis also sterilized the Jews to make them incapable of reproduction.
Reproduction is a fundamental human rights and denying someone the ability to reproduce
without the persons consent is a medical abuse which violates medical codes of ethics.
Physicians who are engaged in such practices have to be disciplined by the medical profession.
The final stage of the medical abuse against the Jewish mentally ill is their murder. The medical
experiments that were forced on the Jewish mentally ill killed them in large numbers.
According to Strous (2008), Jewish patients were targeted because they were vulnerable
and were considered as evil. Racial hatred was the driver for the atrocities against the Jews. The
Nazis deceived the Jews that the experiments were for their benefits but the true intentions of the
experiments were to do harm to the Jews and ultimately kill them. The sad aspects of the events
were that nobody stood for the helpless Jewish patients. Both physicians and public officials
turned their eyes away while these vulnerable patients suffered to their deaths.
Haque et al (2012) write that more than half of all German physicians joined the Nazi
party and this exceeded the partys enrollment of any other profession. The German Medical
Society played a major role in the Nazi medical programs which resulted in coerced
experimentation, euthanization, sterilization and the ultimate genocide through medicalization of
mass murder of the Jews. The Jewish mentally ill were made victims not only because of their
psychiatric diagnosis but also because of their race. These egregious events in the history of
medicine and psychiatry were dark moments for the health profession and serve as reminders of
how violations of medical codes of ethics can result in harming vulnerable patients.

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From deceit to discrimination and victimization, the Jewish mentally ill suffered
immensely in the hands of German physicians. Strous (2008) sums up the ultimate suffering of
the Jewish mentally ill when he writes that the ultimate evidence of the medical abuse against the
Jewish mentally ill was euthanasia stage where these Jews were targeted and systematically
exterminated through participation in the T4 euthanasia program of mercy killing. Research
shows that up to 5,000 Jews became victims of euthanasia killings in 1940 (Strous, 2008).
The development of sterilization and euthanasia programs against the Jewish mentally ill
by German physicians present important lessons that when health practitioners are not
encouraged to uphold high ethical standards, patients will end up suffering. When moral
principles are violated during medical delivery, patients are left vulnerable. It is therefore
important for health practitioners to uphold high ethical standards that will enable them to protect
patients from harm.
The experiments on twins were done by Dr.Mengele at Auschwitz. They were performed
under the pretense of Nazi German ideologies of racial purity. His aim was to collect data on
twin births to ultimately allow Germans to massively reproduce and populate the world (Cohen,
2010). Mengele's favorite experimental subjects were Jewish dwarves and identical twins, most
of whom were children (Cohen, 2010).
Exploration and Analysis
Callahan and Hobbs (2010) report that over the last fifty years ethical issues in human
subject research have received increasing attention. They name the following as basic ethical
principles; autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. Exploration and analysis of the

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Nazi Medical Experiments reveal that the experiments were unjust and unethical because they
violated the codes of ethics and held no regard for human life.
Respect for autonomy stipulates that one must be allowed to make their own decisions
without control or influence from others. This code implies that for one to be autonomous he or
she must be able to deliberate a course of action and complete the planned course (Callahan &
Hobbs, 2010). The Nazi medical experiments did not give Jewish captives autonomy or agency
because prisoners were forced to participate in experiments. Coercion played a big part as well,
for example, Strous (2008) describes how Nazis deceived Jewish mentally ill patients into
believing they were receiving medical treatment when they were actually subjects in
experiments.
The principle of beneficence deals with the concept of acting in the benefit of others. This
concept is guided mainly by our obligation to do what is considered morally right (Callahan &
Hobbs, 2010). Nazi doctors failed to be beneficent to the subjects. All of their experiments only
benefited the Nazi party. In fact, most were done to gain information on ways to enhance the
German populations and its military.
Nonmaleficence describes the intention of those in health care to do no harm (Callahan &
Hobbs, 2010). Nazi doctors went against the Hippocratic Oath and intentionally harmed patients.
They committed heinous crimes like amputations without medications, exposure to torturous
conditions (high altitudes, freezing temperatures, and forced sterilization), and purposely
exposed subjects to toxins (Cohen, 2010).
The ethical code of justice deals with fair treatment of human subjects (Callahan &
Hobbs, 2010). This code was neglected because Jewish populations were unfairly targeted and

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racially profiled. Nazi doctors believed that under Hitlers law people of Jewish decent were not
considered human; therefore they did not have to be treated fairly or maintain human rights
(Bekier, 2010). In addition, they felt justified in their action because they believed that the
prisoners were condemned to death anyway (Bekier, 2010).
Conclusion

At the end of WWII, twenty three German doctors who participated in the Nazi medical
experiments were bought to trail for crimes committed in the name of science (Cohen, 2010).
During these trails, the world learned of the unspeakable atrocities that concentration camp
prisoners endured. The Nazi medical experiments as inhumane as they were, paved the way for
many laws that govern the use of human subjects in biomedical research. As a result of the trials
at the Tribunals,
The Nuremberg Codes were established. Bekier (2010) reports the mandates for the
voluntary consent of human subjects. It also states that any research performed on human
subjects must have benefits that outweigh the risk. The institution of the Nuremberg codes set the
stage for the development of the Belmont report, this legal doctrine summarizes ethical
principles and guideline for research involving all human subjects (Callahan & Hobbs, 2010).

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References
Bekier, M. (2010, November 18). The Ethical Considerations of Medical Experimentation on
Human Subjects.
Burns, N. & Grove, S.K. (2010). Understanding Nursing research (5th Ed.). St Louis: Saunders
Elsevier.
Callahan, T. C., & Hobbs, R. (2010, October 21). Research Ethics. Retrieved July 11, 2014, from
http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/resrch.html
Cohen, B. (2010). The ethics of using medical data from nazi experiments. Jewish Law Article.
Haque, O. S., De Freitas, J., Viani, I., Niederschulte, B., Bursztajn, H. J. (2012). Why did so
many German doctors join the Nazi Party early? Intl J Law Psychiatry. 35(5-6).
Strous, R. (2008). Extermination of the Jewish mentally-ill during the Nazi Era the doubly
cursed. Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci. 49:247-256
Retrieved: http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html
Witherbee, A. (2009). Chapter One: Hitlers Nazis. Holocaust, 1. Retrieved 8
2014 from http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/61709793?page=frame&url=http%3A%2

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