Nazi infantacide victims finally laid to rest, but the questions are still alive

[KillerMuffin]

Link: http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=worldnews&StoryID=891276

From Reuters
The case of Heinrich Gross is symptomatic of how Austria has dealt with its Nazi past.

The former doctor at Am Spiegelgrund became a leading neurologist in post-war Austria despite several attempts to bring him to trial. He wrote psychiatric reports for Austrian courts until 1998 and published dozens of papers on brain deformations, predominantly taken from the Spiegelgrund victims.

Gross was charged two years ago with acting as an accessory to multiple infanticide at the clinic in 1944, but the trial was suspended indefinitely after the court heard he was suffering from dementia.

The state awarded Gross a medal of honor in 1975 for his work as a scientist. He has not been stripped of it.

This is one of those questions that will probably never go away. The Nazis learned a great deal about the human body while performing their evil vivsection experiments on the innocent. What do we do with that knowledge? Do we use it? Do we discard it? Ethically, what's to be done?

Prior to 1900 there was a great deal of medical advancement done in Britain, Austria and France, particularly along the lines of how the physiology works and diseases.

Claude Bernard is one of the most famous proponents of vivisection. He believed that "experimental physiology" was the way to go if you're to make any progress in medicine. He essentially forefathered the idea of vivisection on animals that's still happening today. He used vivisection to see how

William Harvey of Britain used vivisection on all manner of animals, rumor has it humans as well, to discover how the circulatory system worked.

Thomas Willis discovered what we know about the brain through vivisection.

There are dozens of vivisectionists who performed experiments on animals and other medical researchers who performed experiments on collatoral populations and animals. Without this information we would not have the information about the human body that we use to treat people with simple things like dialysis.

Should we use heinously gained medical knowledge? Why or why not?

 

[riff]

We use it. It's simple. If it is there we use it. Do not mistake this as an endorsement of the ends justifying the means. But if the knowledge is there, why not use it?

 

[Starblayde]

should 700 austrian children have died to further an evil egime's scientific borders? No way Hose.

Should we use that 'research' within modern day medicine? Dunno

Firstly you have to define heinous, i think. Different people would find different things heinous.... some of the Nazi doctors obviously didnt think their experiments were.... so it wouldn't matter to them.

 

[LadyDarkFire]

It's a tough call. You could say that using the research means that these innocents did not die for a completely worthless reason, but you could also, just as easily, say that it shows that doing something that can benefit the world justifies any means. I honestly don't know where I land on this subject, just because it is difficult to wrap my mind around the horrors that happened. I think that really, there is no right answer. Those children are still dead, and that research still exsists. Those two facts are going to make this a very difficult, and emotional issue.

 

[riff]

Well, we maigh as well talk about stem cell research. My brother is brain damaged from a car wreck. He can't talk (might be a good thing), but it would seem to me that this kind of research holds promise for cases such as his. But the whole stem cell thing has been politicized into stagnation.

Meanwhile, my brother- my brother - is mute.

 

[naudiz]

This is a toughie, Muff.

Can we use the knowledge without in any way, shape, or form honoring where it came from?

Once you learn something, you can't unlearn it. The advances made have been made. Should we use the data for future advancements? I say if it would save lives and benefit humanity, yes. The people who were tortured and killed won't be brought back to life if the results of their suffering are hermetically sealed and buried.

I don't think using the knowledge excuses or redeems its source. I don't think any rational person would excuse such a thing. I would say use the knowledge, but never let anyone forget at what cost it came. The knowledge itself isn't evil. Knowledge is simply what it is. Where it comes from, and where it goes, can be either evil or good depending on the actions of those involved.

 

[Monazwx]

Tragic, but

Any medical knowlegde gained (no matter the means) should be used, if it will benefit mankind. The nazis acts were worse than heinous but what's done is done. At least this way, those children would not have died in vain, just to carry out Hitler's 'master' plan.

-Strange that this scientist has dementia though.-

Edited to say - Sorry about your brother Riff.