Dark Medicine: Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research

by William R. LaFleur (Editor), Gernot B?hme (Editor), Susumu Shimazono (Editor)

Overview

The trial of the "German doctors" exposed atrocities of Nazi medical science and led to the Nuremberg Code governing human experimentation. In Japan, Unit 731 carried out hideous experiments on captured Chinese and downed American pilots. In the United States, stories linger of biological experimentation during the Korean War. Dark Medicine looks at the sinister medical research conducted during and after World War II. The book describes this research, how it was brought to light, and the rationalizations of those who perpetrated and benefited from it. It looks at the response to the revelations of this horrific research and its implications for present-day medicine and ethics. Finally, it offers lessons about human experimentation in an age of human embryo research and genetic engineering.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253116802
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	07/04/2007
Series:	Bioethics and the Humanities
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	964,626
File size:	518 KB

About the Author

William R. LaFleur is the E. Dale Saunders Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan.

Gernot Böhme recently retired as Professor of Philosophy at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. His books in English include Coping with Science and Ethics in Context: The Art of Dealing with Serious Questions.

Susumu Shimazono is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tokyo and serves on the Japanese prime minister's advisory panel on bioethics.

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction: The Knowledge Tree and Its Double Fruit   William R. LaFleur     1
The Gruesome Past and Lessons Not Yet Learned
Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research: Taking Seriously the Case of Viktor von Weizsacker   Gernot Bohme     15
Medical Research, Morality, and History: The German Journal Ethik and the Limits of Human Experimentation   Andreas Frewer     30
Experimentation on Humans and Informed Consent: How We Arrived Where We Are   Rolf Winau     46
The Silence of the Scholars   Benno Muller-Hill     57
The Ethics of Evil: The Challenge and the Lessons of Nazi Medical Experiments   Arthur L. Caplan     63
Unit 731 and the Human Skulls Discovered in 1989: Physicians Carrying Out Organized Crimes   Kei-ichi Tsuneishi     73
Biohazard: Unit 731 in Postwar Japanese Politics of National "Forgetfulness"   Frederick R. Dickinson     85
Biological Weapons: The United States and the Korean War   G. Cameron Hurst III     105
Experimental Injury: Wound Ballistics and Aviation Medicine in Mid-century America   Susan Lindee     121
Stumbling Toward Bioethics: Human Experiments Policy and the Early Cold War   Jonathan D. Moreno     138
The Conflicted Present and the Worrisome Future
Toward an Ethics of Iatrogenesis   Renee C. Fox     149
Strategies for Survival versus Accepting Impermanence: Rationalizing Brain Death and Organ Transplantation Today   Tetsuo Yamaori     165
The Age of a "Revolutionized Human Body" and the Right to Die   Yoshihiko Komatsu     180
Why We Must Be Prudent in Research Using Human Embryos: Differing Views of Human Dignity   Susumu Shimazono     201
Eugenics, Reproductive Technologies, and the Feminist Dilemma in Japan   Miho Ogino     223
Refusing Utopia's Bait: Research, Rationalizations, and Hans Jonas   William R. LaFleur     233
List of Contributors     247
Index     253

What People are Saying About This

"By identifying and analyzing how the unethical was justified and rationalized, the authors draw moral and political lessons from this disturbing history that we have not yet really learned. —Nie Jin"

author of Medical Ethics in China Bao]]>

By identifying and analyzing how the unethical was justified and rationalized, the authors draw moral and political lessons from this disturbing history that we have not yet really learned. —Nie Jin

author of Medical Ethics in China - Bao

By identifying and analyzing how the unethical was justified and rationalized, the authors draw moral and political lessons from this disturbing history that we have not yet really learned. —Nie Jin

Nie Jing-Bao

"By identifying and analyzing how the unethical was justified and rationalized, the authors draw moral and political lessons from this disturbing history that we have not yet really learned."--(Nie Jing-Bao, author of Medical Ethics in China)

Director, International Program, The Hastings Center - Daniel Callahan

A great deal has been written in recent years about human subject research. This book is different and invaluable. Its focus is at once historical and international, bringing together commentators and scholars from a number of countries and a variety of disciplines. Human subject research raises one of the basic moral problems of modern medicine: in trying to do research to save the lives of the sick, how do we protect those whom we must use to carry out the research? This book deals richly and directly with a history of human subject research that has had many dark moments. This book will help us remember what many would prefer to forget.

Bao Dongni

By identifying and analyzing how the unethical was justified and rationalized, the authors draw moral and political lessons from this disturbing history that we have not yet really learned. —Nie Jin

author of Medical Ethics in China Bao

By identifying and analyzing how the unethical was justified and rationalized, the authors draw moral and political lessons from this disturbing history that we have not yet really learned. —Nie Jin

Steven H. Miles

"This collection of essays examines the past and future of evil state-sponsored research. It's multinational authors bring fresh perspectives on twentieth century experiments by Germany, Japan and United States. The book's second half looks to the future. Diverse authors reflect on how an un-self critical acceptance of medical risks; new concepts of body, death and embryos; and utopian visions of the cornucopia of science may be obscuring lessons from bitter experiences that we believe would deliver us from evil."--(Steven H Miles, MD, Professor of Medicine and Bioethics, University of Minnesota)

Editorial Reviews

. . . a very useful group of essays looking at the abuse of medical research in wartime Japan and Germany, as well as in postwar America . . . Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above.
—J. H. Barker, Professor of Philosophy, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Converse College

Choice Reviews

. . . a fascinating and timely new book . . . The take-home message of the 16 contributors to Dark Medicine is that a nation's books on past episodes of unethical practice should never be fully closed, and that ethical committees in science and medicine should never neglect the historical perspective of their own and other countries.

New Scientist

The wisdom shared in Dark Medicine offers thoughtful guidance on how researchers should go about this harvest.

JAMA

"Lafleur and his coeditors have assembled a very useful group of essays looking at the abuse of medical research in wartime Japan and Germany, as well as in postwar America. . . . Recommended."—Choice

"A fascinating and timely new book . . . The take-home message of the 16 contributors to Dark Medicine is that a nation's books on past episodes of unethical practice should never be fully closed, and that ethical committees in science and medicine should never neglect the historical perspective of their own and other countries."—New Scientist

". . . important issues are raised that should be considered by everyone who is interested in the history and ethics of medicine and medical research.August 2009"—Charles W. Lidz, Ph.D.

"[T]his volume raises some of the most profound issues in the history of medical research. . . . important issues are raised that should be considered by everyone who is interested in the history and ethics of medicine and medical research.August 1, 2009"—Charles W. Lidz, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester

". . . This collection of essays lends relevance to this dark history in a way no computerized module on human subjects protection can.2008"—Preeti N. Malani, MD, MSJ, Veterans Affairs Healthcare System Ann Arbor, UMI

"Most of the articles were noteworthy insofar as they provoked the reader to ruminate on the underlying similarities between rationalizations. Since this is the first book of its kind, it provides a handy starting point for scholars working in bioethics and, in particular, research ethics. Each article is well documented with references, and the collection includes helpful introductory and concluding essays.Winter 2008"—Stephen Napier, National Catholic Bioethics Center

"This set of powerful essays sheds light on medicine and its practitioners past, present and future and questions the headlong plunge of developed and developing societies into more and more aggressive technological attacks on illness to preserve life itself. It is truly worthwhile reading."—

". . . Framed by the belief that unethical research is not simply a problem of the past, Dark Medicine lends thoughtful historical content to the discussion of modern-day dilemmas. The result is a unique fusion of philosophy, religion, history, and bioethics.2008; 300(10)"—John L. Zeller, MD, PhD, Contributing Editor

"'Dark Medicine: Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research' explores the mystery of how apparently upstanding citizens can engage in appalling human research experiments. . . . The book's premise is that rationalization is at the heart of the problem. Physicians and scientists did not participate in the Nazi atrocities because of incompetence, madness or coercion; they participated because they convinced themselves that it was the right thing to do. . .August 2010"—Norman M. Goldfarb, Managing Director of First Clinical Research LLC

"Certain books make you reconsider your views even though you really would rather not. This edited collection is one of those... It is truly worthwhile reading.2010, Volume 7"—Bioethical Inquiry

"A great deal has been written in recent years about human subject research. This book is different and invaluable. Its focus is at once historical and international, bringing together commentators and scholars from a number of countries and a variety of disciplines. Human subject research raises one of the basic moral problems of modern medicine: in trying to do research to save the lives of the sick, how do we protect those whom we must use to carry out the research? This book deals richly and directly with a history of human subject research that has had many dark moments. This book will help us remember what many would prefer to forget."—Daniel Callahan, Director, International Program, The Hastings Center

"By identifying and analyzing how the unethical was justified and rationalized, the authors draw moral and political lessons from this disturbing history that we have not yet really learned. —Nie Jin"—Bao, author of Medical Ethics in China

From the Publisher

. . . Framed by the belief that unethical research is not simply a problem of the past, Dark Medicine lends thoughtful historical content to the discussion of modern-day dilemmas. The result is a unique fusion of philosophy, religion, history, and bioethics.2008; 300(10)

Contributing Editor - John L. Zeller

. . . This collection of essays lends relevance to this dark history in a way no computerized module on human subjects protection can.2008

Veterans Affairs Healthcare System Ann Arbor, UMI - Preeti N. Malani

Certain books make you reconsider your views even though you really would rather not. This edited collection is one of those... It is truly worthwhile reading.2010, Volume 7

Bioethical Inquiry

'Dark Medicine: Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research' explores the mystery of how apparently upstanding citizens can engage in appalling human research experiments. . . . The book's premise is that rationalization is at the heart of the problem. Physicians and scientists did not participate in the Nazi atrocities because of incompetence, madness or coercion; they participated because they convinced themselves that it was the right thing to do. . .August 2010

Managing Director of First Clinical Research LLC - Norman M. Goldfarb

Lafleur and his coeditors have assembled a very useful group of essays looking at the abuse of medical research in wartime Japan and Germany, as well as in postwar America. . . . Recommended.

Choice

Most of the articles were noteworthy insofar as they provoked the reader to ruminate on the underlying similarities between rationalizations. Since this is the first book of its kind, it provides a handy starting point for scholars working in bioethics and, in particular, research ethics. Each article is well documented with references, and the collection includes helpful introductory and concluding essays.Winter 2008

National Catholic Bioethics Center - Stephen Napier

. . . important issues are raised that should be considered by everyone who is interested in the history and ethics of medicine and medical research.August 2009

Ph.D. - Charles W. Lidz

A fascinating and timely new book . . . The take-home message of the 16 contributors to Dark Medicine is that a nation's books on past episodes of unethical practice should never be fully closed, and that ethical committees in science and medicine should never neglect the historical perspective of their own and other countries.

New Scientist

"A great deal has been written in recent years about human subject research. This book is different and invaluable. Its focus is at once historical and international, bringing together commentators and scholars from a number of countries and a variety of disciplines. Human subject research raises one of the basic moral problems of modern medicine: in trying to do research to save the lives of the sick, how do we protect those whom we must use to carry out the research? This book deals richly and directly with a history of human subject research that has had many dark moments. This book will help us remember what many would prefer to forget." —Daniel Callahan, Director, International Program, The Hastings Center

Daniel Callahan

"Most of the articles were noteworthy insofar as they provoked the reader to ruminate on the underlying similarities between rationalizations. Since this is the first book of its kind, it provides a handy starting point for scholars working in bioethics and, in particular, research ethics. Each article is well documented with references, and the collection includes helpful introductory and concluding essays." —Stephen Napier, National Catholic Bioethics Center, National Catholics Bioethics Quarterly, Winter 2008

— Stephen Napier, National Catholic Bioethics Center

National Catholics Bioethics Quarterly

"[T]his volume raises some of the most profound issues in the history of medical research. ... important issues are raised that should be considered by everyone who is interested in the history and ethics of medicine and medical research." —Charles W. Lidz, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Psychiatric Services, August 1, 2009

— Charles W. Lidz, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester

Psychiatric Services

"... important issues are raised that should be considered by everyone who is interested in the history and ethics of medicine and medical research." —Charles W. Lidz, Ph.D., August 2009

— Charles W. Lidz, Ph.D.

Psychiatric Services APA

Most of the articles were noteworthy insofar as they provoked the reader to ruminate on the underlying similarities between rationalizations. Since this is the first book of its kind, it provides a handy starting point for scholars working in bioethics and, in particular, research ethics. Each article is well documented with references, and the collection includes helpful introductory and concluding essays.—Stephen Napier, National Catholic Bioethics Center, National Catholics Bioethics Qtly, Winter 2008

— Stephen Napier, National Catholic Bioethics Center

National Catholics Bioethics Qtly