The Meaning of the Holocaust for Bioethics

Caplan reports on a May 1989 conference, sponsored by the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Minnesota, that examined the meaning of the Holocaust for contemporary bioethics. Five themes were discussed: the role that mainstream medicine and science played in the creation of the Nazi state; what German scientists and physicians thought and did in the name of eugenics and euthanasia; the moral rationales science and medicine used to justify involvement with genocide, euthanasia, and racism; contemporary use of Nazi data from concentration camp research; and the appropriate use of metaphors and analogies to the Nazi era in contemporary bioethical debates. Conference participants included Caplan, Robert Proctor, Benno Muller-Hill, Jay Katz, Ruth Macklin, Robert Pozos, and three survivors of Nazi experiments: Susan Seiler Vigorito, Eva Kor, and Robert Berger.