BACKGROUND

Scientists Debate The Use
Of Tainted Data From The Nazis

FAYE SHOLITON

Special to The Jewish News

W

hen the military tri-
bunal at Nurem-
berg brought to
justice a group of 23 former
Nazi officials for crimes
against humanity in
1946-1947, the world shouted
a collective "Amen."
These men were the
creators of the infamous
"euthanasia" projects to rid
Germany of racial and
genetic impurity; they were
architects of the gas
chambers; they stood at train
terminals selecting for death
those "unworthy of life," they
personally dropped the legal
Zyklon-B pellets that killed
countless thousands of inno-
cent beings.
What set this group apart
from thousands of other Nazi
war criminals was that 20 of
them had once sworn the Hip-
pocratic Oath as physicians.
As a result of the Nurem-
berg trials, a code of ethics
was established on all human
experimentation requiring,
among other things, informed
and voluntary consent.
But does it constitute a
violation of that code to
republish pre-Nuremberg
data? Is it ever appropriate to
use data as morally repug-
nant as that which was ex-
tracted from victims of
Nazism? If so, under what
circumstances?
Finally, when we make an
ethical judgment about Nazi
medicine, are we obliged to
judge our own country's
history of human experimen-
tation by the same set of
standards? _
In March of last year,
several Environmental Pro-
tection Agency scientists
were reviewing a study on the
effects of phosgene gas (a
known carcinogen) on
humans.
The report cited ex-
periments on "prisoners of
war," a term which troubled
them enough to seek the
source.
They discovered that the
researchers had been Nazi
scientists who had performed
their gas experiments on un-
willing and unwitting concen-
tration camp victims.
Twenty-two EPA scientists
immediately sent a letter to
their administrator, Lee
Thomas, to protest the use of
the data.
Thomas' response was to re-
ject the data. He also set in
motion a committee of senior

scientists to formulate a
policy on the EPA's future use
of scientific data obtained by
immoral means.
This May, scientists,
ethicists, philosophers,
historians, religious leaders
and Holocaust survivors will
convene in Minneapolis to
discuss the bioethical im-
plications of utilizing tainted
science, and deciding under
what circumstances, if any,
this data should re-emerge.
Not every scientist agrees
with_ the letter sent by the
EPA scientists.
At the same time EPA re-
jected the data, physiologist
Robert Pozos was preparing
materials for hypothermia
research in his Duluth,
Minn., laboratory.
Included were the results of
what were called "terminal
experiments" by Dr. Sigmund
Rascher, a Luftwaffe physi-
cian whose subjects were un-
willing inmates at Dachau.
The experiments consisted
of forcing prisoners to stand
in vats of freezing water un-
til their body tempratures
reached 26 degrees, in order
to observe the process of
hypothermia and test dif-
ferent means of rewarming.
Earlier last year, Pozos was
receiving a number of upset
and concerned calls about his
work from the press, bioethi-
cists and Holocaust survivors.

Are we obliged to
judge our own
country's history?

He decided to postpone any
decision to use that data pen-
ding the conclusions of the
Minneapolis forum. Nonethe-
less, he believes that the Nazi
hypothermia data is useful
and that it was obtained in a
scientific manner, no matter
how unethical the procedure.
Pozos suggests that we
remember examples of Nazi
science that have been deem-
ed permissable to use.
"The whole U.S. space pro-
gram has inherited tainted
data," he maintains. "At
times what is perceived as the
national interest is a greater
threat than the ethical ques-
tion of using that data."
In terms of validating his
own research, Pozos under-
stands his challenge. "I will
have to convince everyone, in-
cluding skeptics, that the ex-
periments -were state-of-the-
art at the time and that the
experiments themselves were
good," he says.

Dr. Michael Zimmerman,
professor of biology at Oberlin
College, speaks for a large
number of scientists who do
not reject reusing the data.
Citing the EPA study, Zim-
merman points up the signifi-
cant danger of phosgene gas
exposure. "Phosgene (a
known carcinogen) is a
byproduct of our modern
chemical plants.
"If this (Nazi) data helps
save the life of someone work-
ing in the factory, would you
say that research has to start
all over from scratch?"
It must start over, responds
scientist Dr. Hartmut
Hanauske-Abel.
Hanauske-Abel was fired
from his job in Germany
following publication of his
article remindng the German
medical community of their
apathy and complicity during
World War II. He now prac-
tices medicine in Boston.
"I don't see any way to ex-
tract anything from the ex-
periments other than profes-
sional torture and state-
allowed manslaughter," in-
sists Hanauske-Abel.
"If there should ever be a
consensus among scientists
and ethicists that it is per=
missible to use these studies
again," he says. "I would stop
doing science. That is not my
understanding of science?'
Hanauske-Abel believes
that editors of scientific jour-
nals should have "an internal
and implicit agreement not to
republish Nazi data ever
again."
His objection is not against
publishing the reports in full,
for full disclosure would serve
as a reminder of the horror;
but in excerpted form, he
maintains, "they serve to con-
done or even priase" the
studies.
Dr. Tom Murray, director of
the Center of Biomedical
Ethics at Case Western
Reserve University, worries
about a blanket condemna-
tion of the use of tainted data.
"It is a typical response of
the scientific community to
deny the possibility that any
of this research was valid," he
says.
"It is a way that the scien-
tific community has of corn-
forting itself, that they are
not capable of mistreating
human subjects."
Murray concludes that
"technical competence does
exist along with moral
monstrosity!"

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