Genetic drift. Overview of German, Nazi, and Holocaust medicine.

An overview of German, Nazi, and Holocaust medicine brings together a group of subjects discussed separately elsewhere. Topics considered include German medicine before and during the Nazi era, such as advanced concepts in epidemiology, preventive medicine, public health policy, screening programs, occupational health laws, compensation for certain medical conditions, and two remarkable guidelines for informed consent for medical procedures; also considered are the Nuremberg Code; American models for early Nazi programs, including compulsory sterilization, abusive medical experiments on prison inmates, and discrimination against black people; two ironies in US and Nazi laws; social Darwinism and racial hygiene; complicity of Nazi physicians, including the acts of sterilization, human experimentation, and genocide; Nazi persecution of Jewish physicians; eponyms of unethical German physicians with particular emphasis on Reiter, Hallervorden, and Pernkopf; eponyms of famous physicians who were Nazi victims, including Pick and van Creveld; and finally, a recommendation for convening an international committee of physicians and ethicists to deal with five issues: (a) to propose alternative names for eponyms of physicians who exhibited complicity during the Nazi era; (b) to honor the eponyms and stories of physicians who were victims of Nazi atrocities and genocide; (c) to apply vigorous pressure to those German and Austrian Institutes that have not yet undertaken investigations to determine if the bodies of Nazi victims remain in their collections; (d) to recommend holding annual commemorations in medical schools and research institutes worldwide to remember and to reflect on the victims of compromised medical practice, particularly, but not exclusively, during the Nazi era because atrocities and acts of genocide have occurred elsewhere; and (e) to examine the influence of any political ideology that compromises the practice of medicine. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc