Nüremberg Ärtzprozess and Hannover Medical school animal research facilities

We had the most interesting lecture in Hannover: The one we all waited for, I think. It was at the veterinary school anatomy amphitheater, and it dealt with a topic that all doctors should hold dear when it comes to expements: The Nüremberg Doctors trial.

It all began with the an offshoot of social Darwinism known as the eugenics movement. Accroding to this model, social 'misfits' were not to be considered a part of society and the church's involvement in helping the poor was not to be tolerated. In the eugenics mindset survival of the fittest, or rather the best race was the only thing. Poor people and sick, olr, or mentally challenged patients had no role in society but to be a burden to the evolution of the better race. The offspin of this movement lead to the T-4 program, previously discussed. During the Nazizeit (Nazi era), the T-4 doctors and scientists collaborated with the Hitler regime to organize the concentration camps and find an efficient way to kill people. This, as we all know culminated in the 'Final solution to the Jewish problem.'

After the war, Nüremberg was chosen as the site for the trials of the major war criminals, Nazi officers that survived the war. This was because Nüremberg was the city of the Nazi convention, it was therefore symbolical to hold the trials there. They were tried by the 4 allied nations, and many sentenced to death or to long - though often not fully served - prison terms. The idea the allies had was to prevent another Nazizeit. The Ärtzeprozess, or Doctor's trial, was only judged by the United States as were the other 10 subsequent trials. It was difficult to conduct because there was, and really still there is not, a clear definition for 'crime against humanity.' Many of the accused were doing their jobs, and by consequence were not guilty by their standards. The tials began on October 25th, 1946 and the trial was kept as fair as possible. Medical experts came in and testified, while some like Dr. Leo Alexander had interrogated survivors in order to establish that SS Doctors had indeed overstepped the boundaries. Some examples of these ways include: testing effects of high altitude, high temperatures, poisons, malaria, typhus, sterilization, and gassing among others. The result of the trials was conviction of many doctors and the establishment of the Nüremberg Code for human experimentation. This Code was a set of 10 rules, among them informed consent and the option to opt out of an experiment at any time. The sad part is that today, a violation of the Hippocratic oath or the Nüremberg Code is not really considered a crime.

The second part of this blog deals with our visit to the Hannover Medical School's animal research facilities. Hannover Med school is the #1 in Germany for receiving grant money and the #3 ranked school in the country. We saw the cages for sheep used in heart valve replacement operations, some pigs used in allogenic transplantation (non-immunocompatible hosts) and lots and lots of mice cages... about 35,000 of them. We saw the transgenic super sterile 'germ-free' mice bubble cages, and we walked into a Level 2 handling facility where everything that goes in is either autoclaved and the people have to wear sterile overclothes and shoe covers. We saw the state of the art ORs used for these animals and I must say they are well equipped.
After our visit we did laundry (finally!!!) and I welcomed my clean clothes... they better be clean after the €8.00 I spent on them!