The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #41442

Martin T Donohoe, MD, FACP, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Senior Scholar, Center for Ethics in Health Care, Oregon Health and Science University, 3718 Rivers Edge Drive, Lake Oswego, OR 97034, 503/819-6979, martin.donohoe@verizon.net

Nazi and World War II (WWII) Japanese medicine were guided by an Hegelian philosophy of rational utility and a medical ethos which reduced morality to efficiency, economics and aesthetics. Medicine and public health became arms of state policy. Despite a “progressive” focus on preventive medicine and public health, including anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol campaigns, and an emphasis on organic farming and reducing environmental toxins, health professionals participated in large numbers, either directly or indirectly, in heinous experiments on subjugated “inferior populations” and programs which limited citizens’ rights to privacy. This session will describe the participation of health professionals in medical and public health abuses and programs in WWII Japan and Nazi Germany. After a brief explication of the Nuremberg Code and Geneva Conventions, lessons for related contemporary issues will be discussed. Topics include research on special populations, possibly unethical placebo controls, and whether or not to use data acquired by unethical means. Post-9/11 public health issues related to human subject protections for soldiers and prisoners, patient privacy, individual versus collective rights, and mixed agency of military health care providers will be emphasized, as well as the role of health professionals in confronting unethical research and policy.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant should be able to

• Discuss the philosophical and ethical constructs which gave rise to abuses in human subject experimentation and public health in Nazi Germany and at Unit 731 in Japan during WWII.
• Articulate the influence of the Nuremberg Code and the Geneva Convention on post-WWII research and public health in the U.S.
• Describe research and public health initiatives relevant to the post-September 11 climate in the context of what we learned from the abuses of Nazi and WWII Japanese medicine and public health.

Keywords: History, Research Ethics

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.