Is it ethical to use Nazi science to further medical research?

Say for instance the cure for cancer or aids was contained within the medical research of a Nazi like regime. A place where citizens are unwillingly experimented on sometimes with lethal results. Should we benefit from that kind of research or should we bury it with the victims.





http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.h...

Is it ethical to use Nazi science to further medical research?
If the research can save potentially millions of other lives, then it would be unethical to bury the cure for cancer. Then dedicate the cure to those who lost their lives.
Reply:Great question, tough dilemma, despite the fact that all the answers (so far) support using the knowledge. I also support using it, but with more qualification than most people so far.





Your question was the subject of a Star Trek Voyager episode called "Nothing Human". The TV.com summary describes it as follows, "When an alien attaches itself to B'Elanna's nervous system, the Doctor enlists the help of a holographic recreation of the Cardassian Dr. Crell Mossett. She refuses all treatment when the Bajoran crew informs her that this doctor was responsible for sadistic war crimes during the occupation."





This episode deals sensitively and at length with the dilemma you ask about. Interestingly, Captain Janeway decides AGAINST using the medical knowledge (at least, that's what I remember). If you get a chance, see the episode.





I still think the knowledge should be used, because, as some of the answerers say:





1. the knowledge itself is not bad


2. putting it to good use seems a better way to "un-taint" it.





But one difficulty not mentioned is this: there are always evil or opportunistic people in the world who would do anything to make a buck or become famous, and they won't balk at experimentation, abuse, or anything to get what they want. Using knowledge gained from Nazi war crimes sends the wrong message, and makes it harder to dissuade the evil opportunists in the future.





It a tough choice, but whatever choice we make says something about who we are.





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Reply:I say use the information. Let some good come out of a horrible horrible time.
Reply:The word Nazi and Ethical are contradictory as it is!
Reply:no it isn't. We should not forget the experimentation took place, but it would be unethical to knowingly profit from such needless suffering, especially if somebody got the bright idea to duplicate the experiments to prove the results were't a fluke....
Reply:You ask a loaded question and a good one. I tend to agree with your other answerers on this. Those who were used a guinea pigs for such tests shouldn't have to die in vain. Even though their lives were short lived due to the monsterous hands of the Nazi regime, what the outcome of what they endured should go forward as a legacy for the rest. I think the victims would see it the same way themselves. I might not be here to see my great grandchild, but if he was ailing with something and I was tortured with tests in the name of science of sickos, I would still want him to benefit from what was discovered.
Reply:I disagree


I doubt the "scientific results" of Nazi experiments. I think the "results" were a bunch of lies to satisfy their ideology.


The science is made by mind and intelligence and not by barbaric means.


There should be other methods and the science today reached high levels compared with that time.
Reply:I would go for yes.


I have read the article by the way.


If they had actually discovered something like a cancer treatment which would help a billion people, I would say : use it.


I don't suffer from any terrible disease, or any for that matter but I can imagine if I had something like MS or Tourette syndrome or whatever and my life was hell : I would take the medecine they found.


However ethical or unethical it would have been obtained in the first place, if it would help million more people......why not. (my opinion).





Of course, a matter which cannot absolutely compare with the Nazi's lab experiment.....but think of all the people screaming on behalf of animals' right and yet wear leather boots and coats, purses ??


All those beauty creams, products, various medecines which were tested on animals.


Am repeating again : this does not compare with the suffering of human beings of course.





Makes me think also of all the controversy of stem cells experiments........
Reply:The people would have died in vain then, with their medical research contributions, they live on.
Reply:The 'science' itself isn't evil, it's the means of testing and deploying it that is.





Trying to cure cancer is not evil, but unwillingly using it on people to see if it works pretty much is, ESPECIALLY if it is lethal.
Reply:i was unwillingly experimented on every time my third wife cooked and there was no great societal benefit in that case so yes i think the end justifies the means in force feeding inmates, the poor, the elderly, and generally anyone i don't like with experimental drugs that might cure cancer or grow ginormous breasts on women...
Reply:If it wasn't for research done by German scientists, you probably wouldn't be alive to ask the question.
Reply:I think the main issue would be this; If nazi Germany was as steeped in propoganda as it would appear then it stands to reason that the results of any experiment would be suspect in that the results could have been doctored to suit public opinion. Any regime with such a terrible approach to ethics and such a totalitarian agenda would have to have their empiricism called into question. If it is still valid and useful then yes, the results should be used. If nothing else as a legacy to their victims. Denying the results of their suffering would be tantamount to the erasions that routinely went on during that era.





Very intersing Q, thanks
Reply:Of course...We used American Nuclear science to further spread nuclear energy to third world countries.
Reply:I always thought that we should pay poor countries to experiment on the people. And pay the people too.
Reply:Once the knowledge is gained, is outthere for everybody to use it. I don't think they have IP claims on that!
Reply:Ethics can be said to be created by the culture of the time. The culture of this time is blameless in the Nazi attrocities. We have no blood on our hands. We have a mountain of information and history from that time period, some of it valuable and some of it horrific. I would say that by ignoring the possible cure for cancer in the question, we would have blood on our hands, but I am sure that the individual patients would all have individual choices to make. A second question would be "Should they have the right to know where the research originated?"
Reply:use it or those people died in vain
Reply:If it has already been done then we might as well gain as much good from those atrocities as we can. We should not, however, conduct such experiments again.
Reply:We should use it.Not saying that any good came out killing millions of people but why not use that knolwedge for good to save lives.Unfortunatly most of the human race development came out of either war or want to have the best weapons.E.g nucluar technology,drugs to make people stay stronger for longer in a war.This about this most of what we know today about medicine we know from diesease.
Reply:The knowledge should be saved, lest the victims die in vain.
Reply:Use it of course in the same manner that we use Nuclear technology today after the Americans murdered 250,000 innocent Japanese women, children and elderly in Hiroshima and Nagosaki with the Atom Bombs in 1945.

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