Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials
From Medical Warcrimes to Informed Consent
On 4 March 1945 liberated Auschwitz prisoner doctors made an interna-
tional declaration on how prisoners had been treated as experimental
animals. They urged the Allies and neutral states to bring to trial those
responsible. They hoped that prosecuting perpetrators would prevent
coerced human experiments and medical atrocities from recurring in the
future. Survivors and witnesses of human experiments called for documen-
tation of Nazi medical abuses, justice and compensation. Their role in alert-
ing the Allies to medical atrocities, and in declaring the need for a humane
and ethical medicine oriented to consent of the patient and research
subject merits historical recognition.
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