Abstract
At the close of the Trial on 19 August 1947, the presiding judge promulgated guidelines for ‘permissible medical experiments’. These principles have been known since March 1960 as the Nuremberg Code. At the time they appeared more as guidance to prevent a recurrence of the gruesome abuses in Nazi medical research, rather than as general ethical and legal principles. The Code’s origins, motives and significance are matters of controversy. The judges said that the guidelines assisted them in ‘determining criminal culpability and punishment’.1 At the same time, the Code marked the culmination of developments, which went beyond the immediate business of a military tribunal. The ethical concerns ran parallel to the Trial, occasionally intruding into court proceedings, and the final guidelines summarised discussions on experimental procedures.2
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Notes
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© 2004 Paul Julian Weindling
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Weindling, P.J. (2004). Experiments and Ethics. In: Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230506053_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230506053_15
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