| ETHC/PSYC 2000: Nazi Science: Experiments conducted on human prisoners in Nazi concentration camps were in fact brutal crimes committed under the guise of Nazi medicine. In addition, Nazi science and medicine played a pivotal role in the perpetration of genocide. |  |
During this course, we will examine the role of Nazi science in genocide and human experimentation. For example:
- The Nazi euthanasia project
- Mengele's twin studies at Auschwitz
- Nazi sterilization experiments
- Dachau hypothermia and high altitude experiments
- Buchenwald biological warfare experiments
- Nazi medicine's role in genocide
These atrocities will be evaluated within the context of necessary fundamental human rights using the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1947 Nuremberg Code, the Declarations of Helsinki, the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research With Human Participants, and other documents pertaining to human rights and human experimentation. We will also examine:
- The hiring of Nazi scientists by the United States following the war based on their wartime research
- Other human rights violations in the name of science both abroad (e.g., Japanese medical wartime experiments) and in the U.S. (for example, the Tuskegee Studies)
- Ethical questions concerning the use of unethically obtained data and human specimens
Course Materials:
Instructor: Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D.