Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Ethical and Legal Regulation of Medical Practice and Research
- B Medical Ethics, Imperialism, and the Nation-State
- 52 Colonialism, Imperialism, and the History of Latin American Medical Ethics
- 53 Japanese Doctors’ Experimentation, 1932–1945, and Medical Ethics
- 54 Medical Ethics and Nazism
- 55 Medical Ethics and Communism in the Soviet Union
- 56 Medical Ethics and Communism in Eastern Europe
- 57 The Ethics of Military Medical Research in the United States during the Cold War
- 58 Medical Ethics and the Military in South Africa during Apartheid: Judging History
- C Medical Ethics and Health Policy
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
53 - Japanese Doctors’ Experimentation, 1932–1945, and Medical Ethics
from B - Medical Ethics, Imperialism, and the Nation-State
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Ethical and Legal Regulation of Medical Practice and Research
- B Medical Ethics, Imperialism, and the Nation-State
- 52 Colonialism, Imperialism, and the History of Latin American Medical Ethics
- 53 Japanese Doctors’ Experimentation, 1932–1945, and Medical Ethics
- 54 Medical Ethics and Nazism
- 55 Medical Ethics and Communism in the Soviet Union
- 56 Medical Ethics and Communism in Eastern Europe
- 57 The Ethics of Military Medical Research in the United States during the Cold War
- 58 Medical Ethics and the Military in South Africa during Apartheid: Judging History
- C Medical Ethics and Health Policy
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Although the notorious Nazi doctors are an archetype of the dark and evil side of modern medicine, the Nuremberg Trials have brought most criminals to justice and the ten principles formulated in the Nuremberg Code, a founding document of contemporary medical ethics, and in particular the principle of consent, is still guiding ethical medical research and practice (see Chapters 49–51 and 54). Unfortunately, there exists an Asian counterpart of Nazi medicine: Japanese doctors inhumanly experimented on human subjects in East Asia, mainly in China, from the early 1930s to the end of World War Ⅱ. The experiments performed by Nazis and those undertaken by Japanese doctors are similar in that both involved the intentional killing, torture, and harm of human beings in the name of national interests, science, and medicine. Even more unfortunately, as a result of complex political and historical factors, including an American cover-up, Japanese denials, and the relative silence and nonaction of two Chinese governments, Japanese medical atrocities are far less publicized than those conducted by the Nazi doctors. Until very recently, medical ethicists – international, Japanese, and Chinese included – have ignored Japanese doctors’ inhuman experimentation and its ethical challenges. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief account of Japanese doctors’ wartime experimentation and the aftermath, and then, to address ethical issues raised by this disturbing history.
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- The Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics , pp. 589 - 594Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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