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8-Humans: German scientists 'must exorcise Nazi demons'

                                  PART I
-------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  German Scientist Urges IVF Doctors to Re-Appraise Nazi Eugenics
SOURCE: LifeSiteNews.com, Canada
        http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jun/04062806.html
DATE:   28 Jun 2004

------------------- archive: http://www.genet-info.org/ -------------------


German Scientist Urges IVF Doctors to Re-Appraise Nazi Eugenics

BERLIN, June 28, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Professor Rolf Winau, director
of the centre for humanities and health sciences at the Charite medical
school in Berlin, has urged doctors in reproductive medicine to revisit
the medical experiments carried out during the Nazi era and to "exorcize
their demons" with regard to eugenics philosophy. Winau expressed the
mainstream of modern bioethics thinking when, at the annual conference of
the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), he
urged IVF researchers to overcome their moral revulsion against eugenics.

 Currently, Germany has some of the most restrictive laws of any Western
nation in governing artificial procreation. All embryos that are created
must be implanted, and the practice of screening embryos for genetic
abnormalities is outlawed. Germany also has a comprehensive ban on
cloning and has not followed the trend of separating cloning for
reproductive and therapeutic purposes. Pressure has been intense,
however, from the bioethics community to open the country to the full
range of eugenics practices that are commonly followed in other developed
nations.

 Winau, adding his voice to the international chorus of pressure groups,
has called Germany's Nazi eugenics policies "dark times" and urges
doctors to get over their reluctance to study the period. After admitting
that awareness of the dangers of eugenics philosophy is the reason for
Germany's restrictive laws, Winau said, "We need to study the
'Rassenhygiene', the German version of eugenics, in order to show how far
eugenic and racial thinking can go, so that we can have it in mind when
we discuss ethical questions on reproduction and fertility."

 "If we do not, we face uncertainty, lack of information, and confusion
when considering ethical questions in the future."

 However, what Winau neglected to mention is the huge body of
philosophical and historical research being done on the development of
the Nazi policies. German Historian, Henry Friedlander, in his seminal
work, Origins of Nazi Genocide, warned that the Nazi program of racial
purification could rise again. He wrote of the eugenics policies that
allowed for the killing of the handicapped, "euthanasia was not simply a
prologue but the first chapter of Nazi genocide." Friedlander's book and
articles have warned copiously against adopting any utilitarian mode of
thinking of the value of human life.


                                  PART II
-------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  German scientists 'must exorcise Nazi demons'
SOURCE: Press Association / The Guardian, UK
        http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1248954,00.html
DATE:   28 Jun 2004

------------------- archive: http://www.genet-info.org/ -------------------


German scientists 'must exorcise Nazi demons'

German scientists involved in reproductive medicine need to exorcise
their Nazi demons, a medical historian said today.

Professor Rolf Winau, director of the centre for humanities and health
sciences at the Charite medical school in Berlin, claims it is vital to
break the taboo that prevents investigation of research practices in the
Nazi era.

The German scientific establishment's inability to confront its past is
one reason why Germany has such draconian fertility laws, he believes.

 Under the shadow of Nazi eugenics, Germany has in recent years banned
many procedures that could benefit parents and children, argues Professor
Winau.

 Examples include pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, which can detect
genetic diseases in an embryo before it is placed in a woman's womb, and
freezing embryos.

German in-vitro fertilisation doctors have to transfer all the embryos
they create, regardless of quality. As a result, 40% of all assisted
conception births in Germany are multiple births, which carry risks for
both mothers and babies.

Surrogacy and egg donation are also illegal. Like other nations, Germany
has outlawed reproductive cloning - but it has also banned therapeutic
cloning, which is now legal in the UK.

Professor Winau said: "From 1952 to 1980 there was no research at all
into medicine during the Nazi era.

"Today, there are still a great number of doctors who do not wish to be
'disturbed' by remembering the dark times of German medicine. Only a few
hospitals have faced up to their history."

He added: "This research should not be about blaming or accusing
individuals long after the event, but should shed light on how and why
professionals in a particular branch of medicine behaved.

"Knowledge about such behaviour is as important as the knowledge about
the success of scientific medicine. Only this knowledge will make it
possible to reflect on our present position."

Professor Winau was speaking today at the annual conference of the
European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), which this
year meets in Berlin.

He pointed out that many German physicians co-operated with the Nazis and
conformed to their concepts of "racial hygiene".

Opposition to Nazi eugenics hardly existed. More than 45% of all German
doctors were Nazis, and some worked as researchers in concentration
camps, said the professor.

"There was no discussion in the medical journals about whether the law
was ethically justified, but only about how the sterilisation could be
undertaken most effectively," he said.

Many scientists willingly made use of the opportunities offered by the
Nazi regime to pursue their research.

An example included anatomist Hermann Stieve, who examined the ovaries of
executed women from the Ploetzensee prison between 1942 and 1944.

"His scientific thirst for knowledge led to him seizing the opportunities
offered to him without questioning them," said Professor Winau.

The magnitude of the crimes committed by many medical researchers in the
Nazi era made it vital to understand why they behaved the way they did,
he said.

He added: "We need to study the 'Rassenhygiene', the German version of
eugenics, in order to show how far eugenic and racial thinking can go, so
that we can have it in mind when we discuss ethical questions on
reproduction and fertility.

"If we do not, we face uncertainty, lack of information, and confusion
when considering ethical questions in the future."






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