Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of The Nuremberg Code

The Nuremberg Code is the most authoritative internationally recognised document in the history of medical ethics. This landmark document was formulated in August 1947 in response to evidence of medical atrocities committed by Nazi physicians and scientists. The court laid out ten basic principles which must be observed to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts.

On 20th August, a group of international speakers traveled to Nuremberg to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of The Nuremberg Code. Holocaust survivor Vera Sharav outlined the historical context of the Code. She stated that the Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers, but was preceded for nine years by incremental government restrictions on personal freedoms and the suspension of legal rights. Firstly, it was to control reproduction through forced sterilisation. Then, it was to eliminate those seemed to be sub-human (Untermenschen in German). 

The first victims of medical murder were 1,000 German infants and toddlers under the age of three.  The murders then expanded to an estimated 10,000 German children under the age of seventeen. The next victims were the mentally ill, followed by the elderly in nursing homes. Under Operation T4, designated hospitals were turned into killing centres where extermination methods like Zyklon B gas were tested. Various tortures in the name of medical science included throwing live patients into incinerators and pounding the heads of small children. Millions were left crippled, traumatised and disabled. The objective was the extermination of 11 million Jewish people deemed to be “worthless eaters.” Fear mongering and hate propaganda demonised the Jews as “spreaders of disease” and compared them to lice.

The real disease that infected Nazi Germany was however Eugenics. Eugenics is the elitist ideology at the root of all genocides. Eugenics is cloaked in the mantle of pseudo-science. It was embraced by academics, the medical establishment, and judiciary in Germany and the U.S. Eugenicists justified sterilisation, euthanasia and genocide to ethnically cleanse the German gene pool. Medicine was perverted from its healing mission and weaponised.

The Nuremberg Code serves as a blueprint for international Codes of Human Rights to ensure that rights and dignity of human beings do not get tossed aside and that medical doctors never again engage in morally abhorrent experiments. The key contribution of Nuremberg was to merge Hippocratic ethics (“First do no harm”) and the protection of Human Rights into a single code. There are 10 ethical principles enshrined in The Nuremberg Code. Like the ten commandments, they must not be changed or amended. This Code is senior to all government mandates.

The 10 Nuremberg Code Principles (paraphrased)

1.The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. Researchers are responsible for obtaining consent and consent must be devoid of stress and force. Subjects should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the nature of the experiment to enable them to make an enlightened decision on participation.

2.The research should benefit the good of society.

3.Research must be based on sound theory and prior animal testing.

4.The research must avoid the subject suffering mental and physical harm.

5.There should be no experimentation if there is a chance of killing or injuring anyone.

6.The risks should not outweigh the benefits.

7.Researchers should prepare to protect participants against injury or death.

8.The researcher must be qualified to conduct the research.

9.Participants can stop participating at any time.

10.The researcher must be prepared to stop the research at any time.

These principles should be known and applied today in medicine, the law, education and governments.

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Disclaimer: All advice given out by Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic is for general guidance and informational purposes only.  All advice relating to other health professionals’ advice is for general guidance and information purposes only. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information provided with other sources.  Patients and consumers should review the information carefully with their professional health care provider. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by other practitioners and physicians. Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages arising therefrom.

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