Medical Atrocities and Ethics

Medical atrocities have been committed against civilians and soldiers throughout history. In Asia, before and during WWII, the Japanese Imperial Army devastated communities with lethal human experiments and the weaponized use of toxic biological and chemical substances. In Europe, the Nazis’ execution of “the final solution” in Auschwitz and other death camps relied on chemical weapons. In Alabama, Dr. J. Marion Sims conducted vaginal surgical experiments on black female slaves without anesthesia from 1845 to 1849. A hundred years later in Alabama, hundreds of black men became medical subjects without their consent in the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiments, which lasted from the 1930s to 1970s. These are just a few examples of medical atrocities that have contributed to devastating dehumanization. Examining Medical atrocities through the lens of medical ethics can guide us in making ethically and environmentally responsible decisions for today and tomorrow.

Asia

​"Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe poses inside the cockpit of a T-4 training jet plane, emblazoned with the number 731, of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s Blue Impulse flight team on Sunday at the JASDF base in Higashimatsushima in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan." - Korea Joongang Daily (5/15/2013)

Europe

Photo credit: Miho Kim Lee

United States