Even 70 years after the events, the atrocities committed by physicians in Nazi Germany during Hitler’s Third Reich and the influences it has made on bioethics today are still widely debated. Who were these doctors and did they view what they were doing as wrong, or did they simply view themselves as healers for what they considered the superior race? To understand how to react to such a ruthless period of time, one must first understand who these alleged physicians were and attempt to analyze the psyche and supposed justification as “medical research”. While society today can agree that the actions relating to medical treatment and human experimentation were inexcusable, some people believe it is ethical for medical researchers to utilize data …show more content…
Nazi doctors did the complete opposite, which begs the question, should doctors today take into account results from Nazi experiments? Dr. Robert Pozos founded the University of Minnesota’s Hypothermia Laboratory in 1977. Pozos used several volunteers for hypothermia experiments, but he would never allow their body temperature to drop below 95 degrees. Nazis allowed their victim’s temperatures to fall to 79.7 degrees before attempting to resuscitate them. Pozos discovered that the research Dr. Rascher had collected during the Third Reich from human experiments would close the gaps Pozos still needed in order to be successful. However, his attempt to publish his studies in the New England Journal of Medicine was promptly vetoed by the Journal’s editor, Dr. Arnold Relman. ''I don't see how any credence can be given to the work of unethical investigators. Given the source of the information and the way in which it was obtained, how can anyone believe it? How can anyone want to believe it?'' Relatedly, Dr. John Hayward, a biology professor at Victoria University in Vancouver, Canada, also conducted hypothermia research involving the Nazi data. "I don't want to have to use the Nazi data, but there is no other and will be no other in an ethical world. I've rationalized it a bit. But not to use it would be equally bad. I'm trying to make something constructive out of it. I use it with my guard up, but it's useful." In 1988, the administrator of the E.P.A., Lee Thomas, banned the use of Nazi data in an experiment involving phosgene gas following complaints from participating scientists. While this information may be expedient, the use of it essentially legitimizes what these doctors did. Furthermore, it should not be overlooked that the lack of attention to detail and care of the patients most likely disturbed the medical