Casualties of war on the battlefield are to be expected, but the slow torturous deaths caused by Nazi experimentation in World War II on unconsenting victims should never have been tolerated. Even today, the controversies surrounding these experiments are being raised. A main dilemma that medicine faces is whether or not the results of Nazi experiments should be used in today’s scientific endeavors. Data collected from Nazi experimentation should not be used because of its scientific invalidity and the unethical methods used to conduct them.
The experiments conducted by Nazi doctors are well documented to the degree that the most unfamiliar have some inkling of the experiments that transpired in World War II. German doctors during that time were very interested in eugenics, the science of improving genetics through selective breeding (Wilkinson 467).
Their interest went hand in hand with Nazi ideology of conserving the Aryan race and abolishing all other races viewed as inferior. (Pressel 1216).
Together they came up with gruesome experiments for freezing, sterilization and infectious diseases.
Of the experiments conducted, freezing or hypothermia experiments consisted of freezing in either baths of ice cold water of at least three degrees Celsius or to be left out in the cold for an extended period of time (Spitz 86).
They were either in flying suits or naked and were not administered anesthetic (Spitz 86).
280 to 300 victims were subjected to 360 to 400 experiments with a casualty of 50-60 deaths (Spitz 86).
The Essay on Yalta And Potsdam In The Cold War
The Cold War which started in the late 1940’s and ended in 1989 was one of the most contentious events of the 20th century. Even today, new information is surfacing about the war and its causes. The term Cold War is used as the two superpowers USA and USSR never completely reached boiling point. One debating point that historians still argue over is the origin of the war. There have been ...
The results of these experiments are coveted today because we cannot run tests to drop internal temperatures to such dangerous levels.
In a separate experiment, victims were infected with the malaria virus. They were either tainted with infected blood or had their bodies pressed next to boxes containing mosquitoes carrying the virus (Spitz 103).
Malaria, typhus and jaundice were the three most common types of infectious diseases in Germany at that time (Spitz 103).
Out of the 1200 victims, 30 died from malaria directly while 400 died from complications due to side effects (Spitz 106).
The results of these experiments are also desired because there is no way now that doctors can see the results of malaria from inoculation to death today.
Another experiment had to do with sterilization of those races deemed inferior. It was decided by 1941 that all Jews from Germany and any other country that the Nazis invaded would be exterminated (Spitz 191).
The reason for this was to preserve the Aryan race from any influences of outside races (Spitz 191).
It was also to be used as weapon of war (Spitz 193).
The Nazis wanted to stealthily sterilize their enemies as a way of getting rid of their race. Methods to do so included radiation (x-rays), drugs, surgery (tying tubes), carbon dioxide injection and castration (Spitz 191).
There are many reasons as to why the data would want to be used and published in journals as supporting evidence today. Many of the experiments conducted are too unethical to replicate in today’s world (Dyal 10).
The only way of knowing the results of such situations would be to use the only data that is available; the data from the experiment conducted by Nazi doctors. Others argue that by not using the data we aren’t able to find the good in it, to extract the light from the dark (Post 43).
Many say that only by acknowledging the results from such experiments can we avoid like experiments today.
Only by admitting those experiments happened with great regret could we continue to move forward with great solution to today’s medical problems. A final argument for using data obtained from experiments is to strengthen the argument that the Holocaust is a myth (Dyal 11).
The Research paper on Left-handedness and Experiment
No matter how big or small the subjects are they wll still be counted for to the hundredths. Why is it important NOT to tell subjects what is being determined before they clasp their hands? Answer: It is important not to tell the subjects what is being determined before they clasp their hands is because if you do tell them, it will ruin the whole concept. It won't turn out correctly nor will your ...
There are people who outright deny that the Holocaust ever happened and to deny the use of this data or even acknowledge it would be to strengthen the claim that the Holocaust is fabricated. I argue against the use of this data because the experiments are scientifically invalid.
Scientific experiments must adhere to protocol. For instance, a sample in an experiment is a smaller sized representation of a bigger population. The victims used in the experimentation were not a true sample (Cohen).
They included children and adults, the weak and the strong, the sick and the healthy (Cohen).
With experimentation across all types, they could not have ended up with scientifically viable results. A scientist and researcher must accurately record all details and results of experiments. The Nazi scientists failed to do so on both regards.
They had not recorded significant details and variables such age, height, weight, and health (Cohen).
Also, they skewed the results of their experiments to produce more amiable results (Cohen).
Additionally, to ensure the authenticity of the experiments as well as the experimenter, the experiment must be able to be repeated and yield the same results. These experiments cannot be repeated for two main reasons; the first being they were so unethical that it would be impossible today to get permission to do those experiments or perform them through legal channels.
The second reason is because due to lack of crucial details, we are unable to replicate the experiments exactly. Furthermore, the doctors themselves were not trained to perform the experiments they did. The Nazi doctors were of course legitimate doctors often specializing in certain fields of studies. For example, Dr. Adolf Pokorny was a physician specializing in skin. There is no argument about the legitimacy of his medical education (Spitz 192).
What is peculiar is that he was assigned to conduct experiments on sterilization. Another example was Doctor Heissmayer who conducted the Tuberculosis experiments (Cohen).
Quoted from Cohen’s article, Schwarberg states, One characteristic feature of Heissmeyer’s experiment is his extraordinary lack of concern, add this to his gross and total ignorance in the field of immunology, in particular bacteriology. He did not then, nor does he now, possess the necessary expertise demanded in a specialist TB diseases . . . He does not own any modern bacteriology textbook. He is also not familiar with the various work methods of bacteriology . . . According to his own admission; Heissmeyer was not concerned about curing the prisoners who were put at his disposal.
The Review on The Popcorn Experiment
In this project I will be testing whether or not popcorn yields a higher percentage of popped kernels when frozen. This is relevant because most people would like to get the best value out of items they purchased and this may demonstrate one way to do that. I will be freezing multiple bags of popcorn and then popping both frozen and unfrozen bags in the microwave. Finally I will count the popped ...
Nor did he believe that his experiments would produce therapeutic results, and he actually counted on there being detrimental, indeed fatal, outcomes to the prisoners (Cohen).
Finally, there is no way that the scientific experiments conducted could have been valid because of the political agenda the Nazi doctors harbored and the hand that Hitler had in the experiments. In a report sent to Hitler by Dr. Rascher, a key scientist in the hypothermia experiments concluded that it took 53 – 100 minutes depending on the person being frozen (Cohen).
In reality it actually took 80 minutes to a few hours as was said in his personal journal (Cohen).
Why did Rascher create such fiction? It was later discovered that Hitler himself had threatened Rascher to come up with signifigant results or else (Siedelman 222).
The fact that the data obtained is scienfitifcally invalid should silence the argument of using it at all. What good can come out of it if all the results are based on lies? If such experiments were to be replicated, how could they compare to this fictitious garbage? I feel the scientific invalidity of the results is incomparable compared to the ethical dilemmas facing the use of the data obtained from Nazi experiments.
There are three main arguments for not using this data because it is unethical. First, the method of experimentation was unprincipled because of the way the victims were treated. Moreover, because of the political agenda set for by the Nazi political party at that time, it can be argued that the main goal of these experiments were to kill, not to obtain a certain scientific result. As Post states in his journal entry, “Because the Nazi experiments on human beings were so appallingly unethical, it follows, prima facie, that the use of their results is unethical”.
Prima facie is a philosophical term referring to an action obligatory for any moral human being (Ross 74).
Secondly, to use these results would be a great disrespect to the victims and their families. If we were to use this data, it is as if we are saying that we’ve decided to disregard the hardship families had to go through. Many survivors of the Holocaust resent the use of the data for experiments today and they should be ones to have the final say on whether the data be used or not (Post 43).
The Essay on The Subject Matter of Experiments
A well-designed experiment tells us that changes in the explanatory variable cause changes in the response variable. More exactly, it tells us that this happened for specific subjects in the specific environment of this specific experiment. No doubt we had grander things in mind. We want to proclaim that our new method of teaching math does better for high school students in general or that our ...
As Post describes, “to use the data … is to violate the violated anew” (Post 43).
Lastly, by using the data from Nazi experiments would be to allow unethical experimentation. We would be putting science above human life and would allow the Mengeles, Kadifis and Stroessners of the world to use anyone as a human guinea pig for the good of science (“Holocaust on Trial”).
Like the experiments conducted, the data should be left in the past. Their scientific value is not worth the pain it would cause the victims who had to endure such violent experiments. The data has been proven to not be scientifically valid because of the unethical way they were performed, the etails left out, the distorting of results and the sample misrepresenting the population. We must think of ourselves as ethical human beings and consider our moral responsibility to the survivors.
