Recently the Lancet, a British medical journal, set up a commission to review the significant role that health care professionals played in formulating, supporting, and implementing inhumane and often genocidal policies during the reign of the Nazi regime. Based upon this review, a paper was published in the Lancet in November 2023 titled The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: historical evidence, implications for today, teaching for tomorrow. In this paper, the Commission pointed out the relevance of events described in this historical overview to current bioethics and health care practices. The text of this paper consists of 54 pages and is divided into six sections and a conclusion:
- Historical overview of medicine during Nazism and the Holocaust.
- Grappling with medicine’s role during Nazism after World War 2.
- Key implications for contemporary medicine and medical education.
- Specific implications for contemporary health care.
- Conceptual framework for teaching medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust.
- A roadmap for teaching the history of medicine, Nazism and the Holocaust.
- Conclusion.
Clearly in the view of the Lancet Commission, events during the reign of the Nazi regime are relevant to current medical care and the Commission recommends that this historical overview should be part of the educational curriculum for health care professionals.
Each participant will receive a copy of the paper. The first four sections will be discussed in the first four weeks of the course. Sections 5, 6 and the conclusion will be discussed in week 5. Participants will read the appropriate section ahead of class, and it will be discussed in class with discussion organized around questions that I will pose.