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
In modern literature and judicial practice, the tendency prevails to
combine the two last mentioned viewpoints by demanding them
cumulatively. It is not comprehensible, however, why such simultaneous
existence of two arguments for justification should be required when
each argument in itself is decisive.
A well-known teacher of criminal law in Germany stated the following
conception of this idea: “Should the injured person not consent, the
action in his behalf and for his benefit is to be considered lawful if
his consent could have been expected according to an objective judgment.
The primary justifying argument here is not that the injured person has
waived his right of decision, but that a positive action was performed
for his benefit.”
The practical result, in spite of the theoretical objections raised
against such a combination, could hardly be different. For the
“objective judicial sentence based on probabilities,” here applied for,
which is decisive and upon which the so-called supposed consent would
have to be based, will regularly result from an action that under given
circumstances is performed for the “benefit of the injured person.”
Applying these general principles to the sulfanilamide experiments,
there can hardly be any doubt that the experimental subjects would have
agreed if they had been fully aware of their position. The experimental
subjects had already been sentenced to death and their participation in
these experiments was the only possibility for them to avoid execution.
If the Tribunal now tries to assess the probability that the
experimental subjects would have agreed to submit to those experiments
if they had had full knowledge of the position and the certainty of
their eventual execution, there can in my opinion be very little doubt
as to the result of this examination.
Nor can there be two opinions regarding the question whether, under
circumstances prevailing at that time, the utilization of the prisoners
for these experiments was “in the interest of the wounded”.
The evidence has shown that the other members of the Polish Resistance
Movement, who were sentenced to death by court martial and who were in
the concentration camp at Ravensbrueck awaiting the confirmation of the
verdict which was given by the Governor General of the occupied Polish
territory, were really shot only after a complicated and protracted
procedure. Their participation in these medical experiments was the only
chance for them as condemned persons to save their lives. Their
participation in these experiments was not only in their interest but it
also seems to be inconceivable that the prisoners, if they had been
fully aware of their position and had known of the forthcoming
execution, would not have given their consent for the experiments.
* * * * *
_The Defendant’s Erroneous Assumption of an Agreement by the
Experimental Subjects_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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