WWII Medical Experiments

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant
To answer your question, Now_Then, personally, I would accept medical treatment even though it may have been developed through unethical means. In my mind, it is a way to make the tragic loss of human life and suffering at the hands of the Nazis a loss that was not in vane.

Originally posted by Now_ThenI also think that I would accept treatment for the reason you give - although in all honesty I'd rather not want to live with the knowledge that that is the case. My life is exactly as important as yours / theirs.

I know what you mean. I wrestled with this question as I read through some of the sites that I pulled up in researching for this thread. I had to be honest with myself. I know that I would use medical treatments that were ultimately derived from such unethical and inhumane research.

In spite of this research being unethical, I cannot help but feel that it would more unethical to allow the research to "go to waste" -- to allow all of that suffering to be for naught. At the same time, I do recognize as you do, the dangers of such "medical experimentation" being used again with the ends justifying the means. It is a moral dilemma, that is certain, and I am not trying to justify my position by trying to justify the use of such immoral research. I am, if anything, being honest with myself as I point out my own inherent human weakness.







[edit on 9/23/2007 by benevolent tyrant]

Originally posted by Tally Ho

Studying World War 2 is one of my hobbies, and recently iv been learning about a Nazi scientist called Josef Mengele who was one of Hitler's top medical scientists.

He was far from a "top" medical scientist. At the very best, he was a torturer. He had insane ideas about medical experiments and then performed them on human captives that had no choice in the matter. Agonizing death, for the most part, was the end result of his "experiments".

Does anyone know of any interviews or such with people like these doctors. I wonder weather these people did what they did because they were so fundamentaly evil, or because of fear. I know that under Hitlers regime you were with him or you accepted death. But I wonder; were these people so adept at conforming to the regime so as to blind themselves to their own moral judgements - or did they fear for their and possibly their families lives? Or are they just truly evil? For if one was not so cruel as to do these things, yet was forced out of fear or tyranny would you not embrace death? I think that to do what these people did there had to be an evil from even before the regime. But it just baffles me as to how these people functioned. What do you guys think... Please note this is not an attempt at justification, rather its an attempt to firgure out how these people slept at night.

a reply to: gogosam

In my opinion they were evil. I'm afraid of the end just like anyone else however that fear would not eclipse the limits of my beliefs, morals and direction. At a certain point, I'd rather take the bullet.