Victim Of A Medical Experiment example essay topic

The horror and suffering imposed on the Jews, by the Nazi Third Reich has been extremely well documented since the end of the second World War just as with most aspects of the Holocaust phenomenon. The way the Jewish people, along with homosexuals, gypsies and others, not fitting the Nazi criteria, was nothing short of evil. Beyond many though is the concept and actual performance of the infamous Nazi medical experiments. A wide variety of heinous experiments were performed. Experiments such as Freezing / Hypothermia, Genetics, Infectious Diseases, Interrogation and Torture, Killing / Genocide, High Altitude, Sterilization, Surgery and Traumatic Injuries.

A prisoner in a compression chamber loses consciousness (and later dies) during an experiment to determine altitudes at which aircraft crews could survive without oxygen. Dachau, Germany, 1942. (NARA Photo) Doctors From the beginning of time, or at least the 20th century, doctors and medicine have been placed upon a pedestal and widely admired. Even ancient civilization praised the medicine men as having special powers to protect life, holding them in the highest regards. They have given hope and a will to survive to those who are sick. Many have put all their faith into doctors, clinging to the chance that their disease or illness can be cured.

Why we have such a fascination with doctors probably stems from many reasons. But probably the main reason is that they have always been linked to the solution of our greatest fears, pain and death. Throughout history doctors have produced many great wonders and cured many diseases that at one time were considered deadly, but now can be treated with little or no pain. However, there are some doctors who have betrayed and corrupted the place that doctors hold in our society.

These were the doctors of the Holocaust. Josef Mengele "The Angel of Death" Josef Mengele was a doctor at the Auschwitz concentration camp. He promoted medical experiments and took much interest in twins. He subjected his victims to clinical examinations, blood tests, x-rays, and anthropological measurements as well drawing sketches of them for comparison. He would measure every inch of each twin, then inject his victims with various substances. He then killed them himself at the exact same time, by injecting their hearts with chloroform to later conduct examinations of their internal organs.

His purpose he said was to establish the genetic cause for the birth of twins. Therefore he could formulate a program for doubling the birth of the "Aryan" race. On one occasion he selected a set of 18-year-old Hungarian twins who were described as "extremely athletic and handsome". The examination started at the head by examining every inch. Then they were completely X-rated. Next they had tubes stuffed down their noses and into their lungs where they were ventilated with gas which caused them to cough hard enough to be restrained.

They were then photographed for several days; the purpose was to see any patterns in hair growth. After the pictures were done every hair on their body was removed. They were then photographed without hair. Later they were subjected to an extensive lower gastric intestinal examination performed without any anaesthesia. The twins cried so loud Dr. Mengele ordered they be gagged. More exams were performed extracting samples from their kidneys, prostate, and testicles.

Several weeks later the twins were simultaneously killed by injections to the heart. The Experiments The experiments have been classified into three categories: those conducted by the German Air Force, those involving medical treatment, and those, which were racial in nature. The German Air Force used prisoners of concentration camps to study the effects of high altitude, freezing temperatures, and the ingestion of seawater. Doctors sterilized many of the prisoners, and used them to study the treatment of battle injuries, gas attacks, and to test vaccines.

The racial experiments included comparative studies of dwarfs, twins, and skeletal structure. The majority of these experiments resulted in the deaths of their subjects. A Gypsy victim of Nazi medical experiments to make seawater potable. Dachau concentration camp, Germany, 1944. (NARA Photo) Freezing / Hypothermia Experiments were conducted at Dachau and Auschwitz to test freezing and hypothermia for the Nazi high command. The experiments were conducted on men to simulate the conditions the armies suffered on the Eastern Front.

Thousands of German soldiers died of freezing. The freezing experiments were divided into two parts. First, to establish how long it would take to lower the body temperature to death and second how to best save the frozen victim. The main methods used to freeze the victim were to put the person in an icy vat of water or to put the victim outside naked in sub-zero temperatures. The icy vat method proved to be the fastest way to drop the body temperature. A insulated probe which measured the drop in the body temperature was inserted into the rectum of the naked victim.

The victim was then placed in the vat of cold water and started to freeze. It was learned that most victims lost consciousness and died when the body temperature dropped to 25^0 C. The second way to freeze a victim was to strap them to a stretcher and place them outside naked. The extreme winters of Auschwitz made a natural place for this experiment. Victim of a medical experiment immersed in freezing water at the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau, Germany, between August 1942 and May 1943.

(Yad Vashem photo.) High-Altitude Experiments Experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp, for the benefit of the German Air Force, to investigate the limits of human endurance and existence at extremely high altitudes. The experiments were carried out in a low-pressure chamber in which conditions and pressures prevailing at high altitude (up to 68,000 feet) could be duplicated. The victims were placed in a low-pressure chamber and the simulated altitude was raised. Many victims died as a result of these experiments and others suffered grave injury, torture, and ill-treatment.

Experiments with Poison Experiments were conducted at the Buchenwald concentration camp to investigate the effect of various poisons on human beings. The poisons were secretly administered to experimental subjects in their food. The victims died as a result of the poison or were killed immediately in order to permit autopsies. In short Nazi medical experiments were nothing other than murder and the doctors who performed the experiments, nothing more than murders. Regardless of any beneficial findings There is no excuse to justify the actions that were brought upon the innocent victims of the Holocaust. It seems impossible to believe that a human's hate could drive them to conjure up deeds as horrifying as these.

One can only imagine the emotional and physical pain that the victims had to endure. These experiments showed just how terrifying medicine can become. These experiments brought to reality what a mad scientist is and just how deranged he can become if given the right motivation.