The defense has in the present situation only very limited literature at its disposal for the comprehension and explanation of these legally important facts of the case. However, the little that is available is already so revealing that one must come to the conclusion that medical experiments on human beings are not only admissible on principle, but in addition, that it also does _not_ violate _the basic principles of criminal law_ of civilized nations to carry out _experiments on convicts_. The _question_ today is not whether experiments on human beings may be carried out but only under what circumstances and _how_ these experiments may be undertaken. Moreover, the prosecution itself has declared that human experiments are admissible on principle. It is not intended here to go into the experiments which were made on the healthy and the sick and _corpus vile_ at the _time_ when modern research was in _its infancy_ and without participation of government authorities. Insight into those times can be obtained from the book by the Russian physician _Wressajew_ “Confession of a Physician” (_Karl Brandt 48, Karl Brandt Ex. 55_), published about 1900. The book reveals some of the experiments that were then known to medical experts and it follows that the governments did not interfere but in the interest of medical progress permitted such experiments without trying to protect the individual as the person experimented upon. The states then either _considered_ such experiments _compatible with criminal law_, or they acquiesced in the camouflaging of the “voluntariness” of the person experimented upon which was customary in consideration of the law. No governmental intervention as the result of such medical experiments is known. With the development of health administrations, _governmental supervision_ has been increasingly instituted in all countries and one can consider all that was admitted in medical experiments with the consent of the administration and without opposition as the _sediment of the existing law_. This is true particularly of recent times where governmental direction is on the increase. Particular attention must be given here to the experiments in state institutes on convicts and those sentenced to death. * * * * * _EXTRACTS FROM THE FINAL PLEA FOR DEFENDANT GEBHARDT_[12] * * * * * _The Agreement by the Experimental Persons as Legal Justification_