Nazi Doctors: Nazi doctors’ motivation to participate in this medical experimentation program was driven by three major factors. These major factors included fear, ambition and ideology. There were also three additional minor factors which included sadism, altruism and revenge. Irrespective of the particular inducing factor, the common motivation was the pursuit of power.
There are many examples where fear induced the Nazi doctor to participate. First, refusal to join the program could lead to negative consequences for the Nazi doctor such as being sent to a labor camp, prison or the Russian front. While Nazi doctors were given high status in the Nazi regime, once they began colluding with the regime in medicalized killing, they effectively …show more content…
In some cases, Nazi doctors fresh out of medical school were recruited and given unprecedented opportunity. Nazi doctors whose careers had stalled previously saw an chance to reinvigorate them. Talented Nazi doctors got the opportunity to accelerate their careers. Inept Nazi doctors could pursue their research in an environment where the rigorous judgements about therapeutic benefits, were unnecessary. There were many career advantages dangled before the opportunistic Nazi doctor such as: greater ability to publish results to make a name for themselves in their field; access to human, rather than simply animal “material” (outside of the previous ethical considerations on human experimentation); professorships in universities, chairmanships in hospitals, and funding for their research institutes; and lastly promotions within the Nazi political hierarchy. In fact, typically the research did not even need to be fruitful, in order for the Nazi doctor to be promised these advantages. In some measure, the relatively small Nazi medical experimentation program served as a cover, to provide legitimization for the overall massive plan of medicalized killing. If the research provided “real” scientific results, or if the research was a “farce,” the Nazi doctors’ participation in the medical experimentation program served the greater purposes of the Nazi Party. Thus, in the case of the Nazi …show more content…
Many of these professionals were driven to do so by fear, altruism, ambition, or ideology. However, the one factor in common, despite each individual’s agenda, was the pursuit of power. Power can be viewed on a continuum. For instance, when the pursuit of power was highly personal, the goal was to manipulate or control one’s own future. Next, the pursuit of power was slightly more expansive in attempting to control the fate of those either proximate, or psychologically important to the doctor. Finally, the most dangerous form of power pursued by some of the doctors was societal, driven largely by ideology. The Nazi doctors who sought societal power used genocide as their means to achieve it. The medical experimentation program was no more than a small part of an overall plan; these doctors used medicalized killing to reconfigure the human race, thereby changing the history of mankind. In effect, the doctors pursuing societal power may have sought the omnipotence of
There are many examples where fear induced the Nazi doctor to participate. First, refusal to join the program could lead to negative consequences for the Nazi doctor such as being sent to a labor camp, prison or the Russian front. While Nazi doctors were given high status in the Nazi regime, once they began colluding with the regime in medicalized killing, they effectively …show more content…
In some cases, Nazi doctors fresh out of medical school were recruited and given unprecedented opportunity. Nazi doctors whose careers had stalled previously saw an chance to reinvigorate them. Talented Nazi doctors got the opportunity to accelerate their careers. Inept Nazi doctors could pursue their research in an environment where the rigorous judgements about therapeutic benefits, were unnecessary. There were many career advantages dangled before the opportunistic Nazi doctor such as: greater ability to publish results to make a name for themselves in their field; access to human, rather than simply animal “material” (outside of the previous ethical considerations on human experimentation); professorships in universities, chairmanships in hospitals, and funding for their research institutes; and lastly promotions within the Nazi political hierarchy. In fact, typically the research did not even need to be fruitful, in order for the Nazi doctor to be promised these advantages. In some measure, the relatively small Nazi medical experimentation program served as a cover, to provide legitimization for the overall massive plan of medicalized killing. If the research provided “real” scientific results, or if the research was a “farce,” the Nazi doctors’ participation in the medical experimentation program served the greater purposes of the Nazi Party. Thus, in the case of the Nazi …show more content…
Many of these professionals were driven to do so by fear, altruism, ambition, or ideology. However, the one factor in common, despite each individual’s agenda, was the pursuit of power. Power can be viewed on a continuum. For instance, when the pursuit of power was highly personal, the goal was to manipulate or control one’s own future. Next, the pursuit of power was slightly more expansive in attempting to control the fate of those either proximate, or psychologically important to the doctor. Finally, the most dangerous form of power pursued by some of the doctors was societal, driven largely by ideology. The Nazi doctors who sought societal power used genocide as their means to achieve it. The medical experimentation program was no more than a small part of an overall plan; these doctors used medicalized killing to reconfigure the human race, thereby changing the history of mankind. In effect, the doctors pursuing societal power may have sought the omnipotence of