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Nuremberg was a geographic center for Nazi rallies and gave its name to the Nazi racial laws. Nuremberg also was the site of post-World War II trials that enunciated major human rights laws: the Nuremberg Principles and the Nuremberg Code. The authors of the series of articles in this issue were asked to reflect on the significance of one of the Nuremberg Trials-the Doctors' Trial (December 1946-August 1947)-and the use and meaning of its Code today. They quite reasonably sought to put the trial and its Code in historical and contemporary context.1-4 The Doctors' Trial was the first of 12 "subsequent trials" conducted by the US Army before US judges.
The Doctors' Trial (also known as the Medical Trial) followed the International Military Tribunal in which judges from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union tried the major Nazi leaders. The tribunal ruled that there are such things as war crimes and crimes against humanity (including murder, torture, and slavery), that individuals can be held criminally responsible for committing them, and that "obeying orders" is no defense. In the Doctors' Trial, US physicians worked with US lawyers to prosecute Nazi physicians for murder and torture done under the guise of human experimentation. Sixteen of the 23 defendants (20 of whom were physicians) were found guilty, and seven were executed.5
THE CONTEXT OF THE TRIAL
Grodin's essay situates the trial in the context of the Nazi ideology of racial hygiene, and powerfully suggests that World War II practices of both "euthanasia" and eugenics continue to teach us lessons and warn us of predictable dangers inherent in contemporary practices.2 We are not Nazis, but "the atrocities justified and performed by the health practitioners serving the Nazi eugenics and euthanasia programs exemplify how small steps along a slippery slope can lead to crimes against humanity."2(p55) Especially problematic are actions, like the Nazi "euthanasia program," that are carried...