Holocaust/Nazi Regime Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Protection of Conscience Project Library

Doctors, torture and abuse of the doctor-patient relationship

Earl M Cooperman

Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ — Canadian Medical Association Journal

Extract
The doctor-patient relationship is threatened. Once this association implied only one thing: the doctor above all must protect the patient. . . .

. . . it is not inconceivable that, as Canada moves towards socialized medicine and state control of all health facilities, we, too, may sacrifice the privacy of the doctor- patient relationship that we all once regarded as sacred.

. . . There is much concern regarding the
involvement of medical personnel in the use of torture for political purposes. . .

. . . When the Dutch medical community refused to cooperate with the Nazi medical organization, 100 Dutch physicians were sent to concentration camps. Other Dutch physicians did not give in; they took care of the widows and orphans of their colleagues. They did not participate in any Nazi activity; they acted unanimously.

. . . Recently physicians in Portugal studied “the scientific effects” of torture; they examined persons before, during and after torture sessions and evaluated their ability to undergo further torture.

. . .We must therefore each ask what is our duty to our state and what to our profession and to our own sense of moral justice. To what extent might we unwittingly become agents of repression? . . . Physicians in Russia condone beatings; if the prisoner dies the physician complies with government policy and eliminates possible repression by signing the death certificate “cirrhosis of the liver.. or “coronary occlusion.”. . .

Cooperman EM. Doctors, torture and abuse of the doctor-patient relationship. Can Med Assoc J. 1977 Apr 09;116(7):707, 709-710.

(Correspondence) Life devoid of value?

Heiko Baunemann

Extract
In “The Release of the Destruction of Life Devoid of Value” Hoche, a distinguished psychiatrist, and Binding, a highly respected jurist, persuasively developed the concept of “worthless human beings”, such as the hopelessly crippled, deformed and insane. They stressed the misery and futility of such unfortunate lives and the cruel economic burden they represented to their relatives and society. . . the legalization of abortion by the Canadian Parliament in 1969 have laid the foundation for the legalization of euthanasia, or the killing of people medically judged to be “incapable of meaningful life”, such as mongoloid idiots, imbeciles, the terminally ill, persons with senile melancholia, stroke victims living like “vegetables”, and – well, the sort of people, besides unwanted babies, who would be “better off dead”. Be patient: euthanasia is coming.

Baunemann H. (Correspondence) Life devoid of value?. Can Med Assoc J. 1976;115(11):1086.

(Correspondence) A question of conscience

Lillian Versteeg

British Medical Journal, BMJ — British Medical Journal

Extract
Mr R Walley’s “Personal Paper” (12 June, p 1456) shocked me profoundly. Those of us who recall the policy of appointing to mental institutions in Nazi Germany only those doctors prepared to take part in “euthanasia” of mentally defectives must recoil from the implications of the policy he encountered.

Versteeg L. (Correspondence) A question of conscience. Br Med J. 1976;2(6026):43.

(Correspondence) Therapeutic abortion

Wendell W Watters

Extract
I regret that my previous letter (Can Med Assoc J 111: 900, 1974) did not make clear the distinction between people whose individual value system would not allow them to participate in abortion themselves and people who would prevent anyone from participating in abortion. I sincerely hope we never have laws that prevent the former from following the dictates of their own conscience . . . he is entitled to call embryos anything he wishes. But those of us who call tadpoles “tadpoles” and not immature frogs, acorns “acorns” and not oak trees, prefer to call fetuses “fetuses”. . . With regard to Dr. Baunemann’s letter, the persistent attempt on the part of the self-styled pro-life people to force an association between the Nazis and the advocates of abortion Jaw repeal is wearing a bit thin. . . .History shows that antiabortion laws (phenomenologically, compulsory pregnancy laws) were always introduced to stimulate population growth; and such policies of demographic aggression usually preceded acts of other kinds of aggression. Hitler was a fervent crusader for compulsory pregnancy.

Watters WW. (Correspondence) Therapeutic abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1975 Mar 08;112(5):558.

(Correspondence) Unwanted pregnancy and abortion

CW Kok

Extract
. . . A common error made by physicians is that they assume a responsibility that is not theirs. When a healthy woman becomes pregnant it is her responsibility and it is certainly not the duty of the physician to terminate the pregnancy. . . . .

. . . If it is a depression one has to treat the depression, not the pregnancy. We are using the wrong diagnosis to escape from a difficult decision. To justify an abortion one must be sure that health will be permanently damaged, as in a patient with chronic nephritis or one at risk of heart failure. . . .

. . . .The lack of guiding principles has created a very disturbing situation. A most disturbing thought is that those who are unwanted can be disposed of. This happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany and it happens in all totalitarian states. . . .Throughout history, people were first dehumanized, not regarded as people, then used or killed. . .

. . . Physicians’ attention must be focused on preventing the occurrence of those situations in which abortion may be justifiable. . . The Oath of Hippocrates should serve as a means of drawing the members of the medical profession together irrespective of religious or philosophical differences. As it is now, we are the passive onlookers of a debate between fanatically rigid groups.

Kok C. (Correspondence) Unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1975 Feb 22;112(4):419-420.

(Correspondence) Therapeutic abortion

Heiko Baunemann

Extract
The history of the Nazi era reminds us of the tendency in man to abuse and enslave his brothers. . . Canadian doctors have performed approximately 150 000 abortions. They are acting freely and voluntarily. I do not believe that their actions can be defended by moral men. It is true that there are good men among them, men who are motivated by the highest ideals, but as a social group I view them as mass killers.

Baunemann H. (Correspondence) Therapeutic abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1975;112(1):27.

(Correspondence) Attitudes to Abortion

Margaret S White

Extract
It is true that the Nazis were opposed to abortion for “wanted Aryans” (they, like Miss Simms, were interested in eugenics), but any society, including our own, is judged by how it treats its “unwanted” people. Careful thought might determine whose beliefs are closest to the Nazis’ we all affect to despise.

White MS. (Correspondence) Attitudes to Abortion. Br Med J. 1974 Jun 29;2(5921).

(Correspondence) Attitudes to Abortion

JS Scott

Extract
You suggest that while a conscience clause was “manifestly essential” seven years ago, now “the situation has changed.”In what way? The extermination chambers of the Third Reich were no less of an affront to civilization at the end than they were at the beginning of their existence; the few who continued to speak against them were every bit as right ultimately as initially. Lest it be said that this is quite remote from the British abortion situation, I record that I have been faced with a healthy and affluent young woman demanding abortion”because the father is a Jew.” That the abortion was carried out, though not by me, may give some of your readers pause for thought.

Scott J. (Correspondence) Attitudes to Abortion. Br Med J. 1974 May 11;2(5914):329-330.

(Correspondence) Therapeutic Abortion

RN Borsch

Extract
The main purpose of my letter was to clarify what I thought was Dr. Coffey’s confusion between moral and religious issues on therapeutic abortion. . . . Hence that “infamous” third paragraph was not an argument in support of therapeutic abortion but a clearer definition of the moral issues involved. How Dr. Harrison was able to extrapolate the basically sociological data to include implied support of a euthanasia program against 270,000 mental defectives and Hitler’s subsequent genocide of Jews during World War II is totally beyond my comprehension.

Borsch R. (Correspondence) Therapeutic Abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1970;102(11):1209-1210.

(Correspondence) Ethics and Abortion

JP Crawford

Extract
Surely a decision by Parliament in a democracy cannot be described as sinister ” superior orders” echoing Nuremberg 20 years ago (or rather what ended there and then). The boot could be argued to be on the other foot-namely, that doctors are prepared to dictate to the nation.

Crawford J. (Correspondence) Ethics and Abortion. Br Med J. 1968 Apr 20;2(5598):173.