2. GERMAN MEDICAL PROFESSION
a. Introduction
The position of the German medical profession under the Hitler regime was the subject of argument by both prosecution and defense. The prosecution discussed the matter in the early part of its opening statement (vol. I, p. 29 ff.). Selections from the argumentation of the defense on this point have been taken from the final plea for the defendant Blome and from the closing brief for the defendant Rostock. These appear on pages 86 to 90.
b. Selections from the Argumentation of the Defense
EXTRACT FROM THE FINAL PLEA FOR
DEFENDANT BLOME[[26]]
Furthermore, I have another matter at heart, especially in my capacity as defense counsel for this defendant: Blome was Deputy Reich Physicians’ Leader; he will, therefore, to a certain degree, easily be regarded as the representative of the German medical profession during the Hitler regime. Now, there is great danger that the entire German medical profession will be identified with its former leader, Dr. Conti, and with the crimes he was charged with during this trial; the German medical profession fears that those crimes which, in fact, were committed by individual doctors, who may have been rightly charged, are to be taken as typical of the entire medical profession. Indeed, during the last months we could hear in the press and on the radio that the entire medical profession was here in the prisoners’ dock; unfortunately, by thus generalizing, the matter was presented as though the entire medical profession was corrupt and that the majority of German physicians had committed such crimes or at least approved them, as stated here in the indictment at the trial. This conception is wrong and unjust. The German medical profession numbered about 80,000 members and if we add the Wehrmacht physicians and the official physicians, one arrives at about 100,000 physicians. Now let us compare with this total number the small number of physicians and researchers here in the dock. There are altogether 20 men. Of what importance is such an insignificant number for the judging of the entire profession? If out of 5,000 German physicians one single person committed a crime, it is impossible to draw a conclusion from these few exceptions regarding the behavior and morals of the whole class. And even if we suppose that perhaps another few hundred physicians and researchers not here in the dock had taken part in the “experiments on human beings” and in the “euthanasia action”, the number of guilty persons in comparison with the total number of the entire profession is still too small to entitle one to consider the entire profession as criminal, and morally inferior because some individuals committed a wrong.
There is yet another point of view. It stands to reason that not all experiments on human beings can be excused and justified, not even during a time of total warfare and under a dictatorship, and no decent person would ever think of excusing the way and manner in which the Hitler State carried out the “Euthanasia Program.” However, it is an incontestable fact that large-scale experiments on human beings cannot altogether be avoided and are, in fact, carried out throughout the whole world, and that there are different viewpoints concerning the problem of euthanasia, even to a limited extent in the circles of conscientious physicians when this is carried out on a proper legal basis, and when, in addition, full precautions are taken to prevent abuses. It must not be overlooked that the deterioration of the medical profession claimed in connection with this trial is connected exclusively with the problem of experiments on human beings and with euthanasia, but that no accusations are made against the professional practice of the German physicians in any other respects; there are especially no accusations referring to the relationship between the sick patient and the physician whom he had chosen as a helper and confidant to restore his health. This confidence in the attending physician felt by the patient has remained completely untouched by this trial.
We Germans have our own opinion about our physicians, we know their conscientiousness and willingness to render help; especially during the war we have been able to observe and appreciate their readiness to sacrifice themselves; we know that the good qualities that made the German physicians and researchers a model in former decades were not lost during Hitler’s time, and it would be a pity if the abuses, which have been revealed and proved by this trial, should serve to undermine the confidence of the German people in their physicians and expose them to the contempt of all civilized nations.