Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

Omar Sultan Haque, Harvard Medical School (omarsultanhaque@gmail.com)Ivana Viani, Farleigh Dickinson University (ivanaviani@gmail.com)During the Weimar Republic in the mid-twentieth century, more than half of all Germanphysicians became early joiners of the Nazi Party, surpassing enrollment for any otherprofession. From early on the German Medical Society went on to play the most instrumentalrole in the Nazi medical program, starting with marginalization of Jewish physicians, proceedingto coerced “experimentation,” “euthanization,” and sterilization, and culminating in genocide viathe medicalization of mass murder of Jews and those others caricatured and demonized by Naziideology. Given the medical oath to “do no harm,” many postwar ethical analyses have strainedto make sense of these seemingly paradoxical atrocities. Why did physicians act in such amanner? Yet few have tried to explain the self-selected Nazi enrollment of such anoverwhelming proportion of the German Medical Society in the first place. This article lendsinsight into this paradox by exploring some major vulnerabilities, motives, and rationalizations -professional vulnerabilities among physicians in general (valuing conformity & obedience toauthority, valuing hope and empowerment including prevention of contamination and fightingagainst mortality, and possessing a basic interest in biomedical knowledge and research),economic factors and motives (related to physician economic insecurity and incentives foreconomic advancement), and Nazi ideological and historical rationalizations (beliefs aboutSocial Darwinism, eugenics, and the social organism as sacred)-that may have predisposedGerman physicians to Nazi membership. Of particular significance for future research andeducation is the manner in which the persecution of Jewish physician colleagues was rationalizedin the name of medical ethics itself. Giving proper consideration to the forces that fueled “NaziMedicine” is of great importance, as it can highlight the conditions and motivations that makephysicians susceptible to misapplications of medicine, and guide us toward prevention of futureabuse.180. Witnesses and Expert EvidenceBehind Closed Doors: What Expert Witnesses Can Teach us About DrugCompany ActivitiesDavid J. Rothman, Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons (djr5@columbia.edu)Sheila Rothman, Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons (smr4@columbia.edu)In light of the growing number of lawsuits against drug companies for their marketing ofpsychiatric drugs, it is important for a conference on law and mental illness to explore whatresearchers may learn from these cases. From 2010 to 2012, Sheila Rothman (Mailman School ofPublic Health, Columbia University) and I served as consultants to the Texas State AttorneyGeneral's Office in its successful suit against Johnson and Johnson for Medicaid fraud inpromoting Risperdal. This presentation will draw on our experience to illuminate the following423