April 17, 19, and 24: Medical Ethics and Human Subject Research in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Medical Ethics in the Shadow of the Holocaust:
The Nazi Doctors, Racial Hygiene, Murder and Genocide
Tuesday, April 17, 7:30 pm, MUB Theater II
Michael A. Grodin, MD
Director, Project on Medicine and the Holocaust and
Professor, Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights
Boston University School of Public Health and School of Medicine

Giving a Name to Nameless Victims:
Patients and the Nazi “Euthanasia” Program
Thursday, April 19, 7:30 pm, Murkland 115 (Richards Auditorium)
Patricia Heberer, PhD
Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment:
A Tragedy of Race and Medicine
Tuesday, April 24, 7:30 pm, Murkland 115 (Richards Auditorium)
James H. Jones, PhD
Historian, Professor Emeritus, University of Arkansas and
Author, Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

This lecture series seeks to promote a broad awareness and understanding of the ethical issues surrounding medical research using human subjects, particularly with regard to two major historical efforts in which medical and public health research violated basic ethical behavior and practices in selecting and protecting the human subjects involved. Both Dr. Grodin and Dr. Heberer have conducted significant research involving Nazi physicians during the Holocaust and will present talks focusing on experimentation done by these physicians. The Nazi physicians were subsequently put on trial in Nuremberg, which led to the development of the well respected, often-used Nuremberg Code in governing ethical practices in human subject research. Dr. Jones is an historian and author of Bad Blood, the historic book that opened the nation's eyes to the unethical treatment of human subjects in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment conducted by the US Public Health Service. The "Experiment" began in the early 1930s and continued unabated for decades.

Learn more about...     

Michael A. Grodin, MD

Patricia Heberer, PhD

James H. Jones, PhD

Sponsored by:
Endowed Fund for Holocaust Education
College of Liberal Arts
Department of History
College of Health and Human Services
Department of Health Management and Policy
Class of ‘54 Academic Enrichment Fund
Honors Program