Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume IIVarious
Philosophy
Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume II
Various
Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946; War crime trials -- Germany -- Nuremberg
I will touch only briefly on what I have explained in detail in my
closing brief. No one will contend that human beings really allowed
themselves to be infected voluntarily with venereal disease; this has
nowhere been stated explicitly in literature. Cholera and plague are
also not minor inconveniences one is likely to undergo voluntarily for a
trifle in the interest of science. Above all, it is not customary to
hand over children for experimental purposes, and I cannot believe that
in the 13 experiments carried out on a total of 223 children, as stated
in Document Karl Brandt 117, Karl Brandt Exhibit 103, the mothers gave
their consent. Would not the mothers have deserved the praise of the
scientist for the sacrifice they trustfully made in the interest of
science, praise which is otherwise liberally granted to real volunteers
in reports on experiments?
Is it not likely to have been similar to the experiments carried out by
Professor McCance? (_Karl Brandt 93, Karl Brandt Ex. 29._) The German
authorities who condemn the defendants in a particularly violent form
have no objection to raise here against the order to hand over weakling
children to a research commission for experimental purposes. The
questionnaires which the Tribunal approved for me in order to get
further information about this matter have not been answered as the
higher authorities did not give permission for such statements to be
made. This silence says enough; it is proof of what is supposed to be
legal today in the line of “voluntariness”.
It is repeatedly shown that the experiments for which no consent was
given were permitted with the full knowledge of the government
authorities. It is further shown that these experiments were published
in professional literature without meeting any objection, and that they
were even accepted by the public without concern as a normal phenomenon
when reports about them appeared in popular magazines.
This happens at a time when the same press is stigmatizing as crimes
against humanity the German experiments which were necessary in the
interests of the state. Voluntariness is a fiction; the emergency of the
state hard reality.
In all countries experiments on human beings have been performed by
doctors, certainly not because they took pleasure in killing or
tormenting, but only at the instigation and under the protection of
their state, and in accordance with their own conviction of the
necessity for these experiments in the struggle for the existence of the
people.
The German doctor who acted in conformity with the German regulations
can no more be punished than the American doctor who complied with the
requests of his state in the way which is customary there.
Justice is indivisible.
To what extent is the defendant Karl Brandt implicated in the medical
experiments?
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