Michael Grodin

• Boston University

Carol V.A. Quinn brings fresh attention to a continuing problem: the perpetuation of harm to Holocaust victims by present actions, in this case the use of data exploited from victims of the Nazi medical experiments. The first step in addressing this longstanding injustice, Quinn argues, is for survivors to take control of the data. Almost without e...

INTRODUCTION In this article, we examine in detail a set of little-known texts arising from the Holocaust: the decisions given by rabbis in response to cases where the Germans and their collaborators attempted to force Jews to decide who among them would live and who would die. The genre that these decisions fit into is known as rabbinic responsa:...

Over 25 years of experience from the field have resulted in important lessons learned concerning how to best approach the multifaceted, complex treatment of immigrants and refugees. Continuing this work, it is important to educate medical communities about tried-and-true best practices and cultural sensitivity, as well as the integration of cultura...

The use of Eduard Pernkopf's anatomic atlas presents ethical challenges for modern surgery concerning the use of data resulting from abusive scientific work. In the 1980s and 1990s, historic investigations revealed that Pernkopf was an active National Socialist (Nazi) functionary at the University of Vienna and that among the bodies depicted in the...

This chapter describes Boston University School of Public Health’s (BUSPH) experience integrating the intersection of religion and public health through a course entitled Religion, Ethics, and Public Health. The efforts described here have spanned over four decades beginning with faculty experiences in the 1970s that inspired the first iteration of...

This article, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Doctors’ Trial at Nuremberg, reflects on the Nazi eugenics and “euthanasia” programs and their relevance for today. The Nazi doctors used eugenic ideals to justify sterilizations, child and adult “euthanasia,” and, ultimately, genocide. Contemporary euthanasia has experienced a progressi...

Transcervical sterilization is a non-surgical method of permanent female sterilization that is widely used and critically discussed. A review of the historiography of the method reveals that instances of its coercive use are not included in the historical account. This study offers a reexamination of the work of Carl Clauberg and Hans- Joachim Lind...

We describe the system of public health that evolved in the Vilna Ghetto as an illustrative example of Jewish innovation and achievement during the Holocaust. Furthermore, we argue that by cultivating a sophisticated system of public health, the ghetto inmates enacted a powerful form of Jewish resistance, directly thwarting the intention of the Naz...

: Limited research exits on utilization and cost-effectiveness of acupuncture among underserved communities, and virtually no evidence has been published with respect to refugee populations. In this study, we examined the relationship between acupuncture and the total utilization of primary care services in a cohort of refugee patients with chronic...

To the Editor Mr Gostin in his Viewpoint1 argued that “All states have followed the model act, although 2 states—New Jersey and New York—require hospitals to consider the family’s religious or moral views in determining a course of action after brain death.”However, the New Jersey statute and New York regulation require consideration of the individ...

This presentation (based on a recently completed book) will provide a historical example of how Jewish Physicians practiced medicine under the most severe conditions in the Ghettos and Camps During the Holocaust.. Faced with epidemic infectious disease, starvation, lack of medicines, lack of clean water and safe sewage, physicians did the best to s...

To the Editor The authors of a Viewpoint¹ stated that “The [Catholic] Church opposes artificial means of birth control based on the belief that each and every marital sexual act must be open to the possibility of the transmission of life.” They then stated that “A similar system of beliefs is shared, in part, by other faiths, including Orthodox Jud...

To the Editor: We are a group of physicians, bioethicists, and scholars in allied fields who agree with the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) that the informed-consent documents that were used in the Surfactant, Positive Pressure, and Oxygenation Randomized Trial (SUPPORT) were seriously inadequate.(1) The aims of the SUPPORT study were...

While the medical literature does not support the placement of feeding tubes in the demented elderly it remains a very common practice. Through an analysis of medical evidence as well as the decision-making processes surrounding the placement of feeding tubes we hope to further clarify the complexity involved in the decision to perform this procedu...

Throughout the Holocaust, a number of Jewish physicians and other allied health professionals continued to provide health care to Jewish patients within the ghettos and camps. While much information has recently been published about Nazi medicine, there is a lack of information about Jewish health care providers and their impact. This research abou...

Survivors of torture and refugee trauma often have increased needs for mental and physical healthcare. This is due in part to the complex sequelae of trauma, including chronic pain, major depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and somatization. This article reviews the scientific medical literature for the efficacy and feasibilit...

Refugees with trauma histories are a difficult medical population to treat. Acupuncture care has gained acceptance in many mainstream hospitals in the United States, but research on acupuncture and refugee populations is limited. Herein, we report our experiences with 50 refugees (total acupuncture treatments = 425) at a major tertiary teaching hos...

It is now more than 65 years since the end of the second World War and the liberation of Auschwitz. The Holocaust, the systematic state-sponsored genocide of six million Jews, was a watershed event in modern human history and has challenged pre-existing ideas of the social, cultural, and psychological analysis of human behavior (Marcus & Wineman, 1...

A doctor once asked Elie Wiesel, "How does one treat survivors of the Holocaust?" He replied, "Listen to them, listen very carefully. They have more to teach you, than you do them." My own experience confirms the wisdom of his advice. As a physician, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, and director of the Project on Medicine and the Holocaust at the El...

A physician once asked Elie Wiesel, “How does one treat survivors of the Holocaust?” Wiesel replied, “Listen to them, listen very carefully. They have more to teach you, than you do them.” The 65 years since World War II and the Holocaust have been the most-studied period of world history. Holocaust survivors and their families have likewise been t...

Little is known about the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) among refugees, despite the common practice of CAM in many non-Western countries. We performed a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature using nine electronic databases. We included articles pertaining to refugees and CAM (whole medical systems, mind body medicine,...

The publication of a new volume by the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry is an occasion of scholarly anticipation. The latest book in the series is no exception. Cadaverland: Inventing a Pathology of Catastrophe for Holocaust Survival focuses on the nature, scope, and implications of the treatment of Holocaust survivors in post-World...

This work is part of a 25-year project on the problem of evil.1 From work on Holocaust survivors2 and contemporary torture survivors,3 I turned my focus to bystanders and then finally to perpetrators, particularly focusing on the role of physicians in torture.5 The research I compiled is more than just an academic interest or a set of historical fa...

As a result of the recent resurgence of violence in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights has an increased patient demographic: Tibetan refugee monks. Diagnosed by their amchis (traditional healers) as having a srog-rLung (life-wind) imbalance and presenting with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), t...

Over the centuries, slavery has become embedded into the social fabric of Mauritania with generations of abid and bizan (Mauritanian slaves and slave masters, respectively) born and raised knowing nothing but the institution of chattel slavery. Abid fleeing their station in Mauritania come to the USA with unique psychological needs that will affect...

Torture is a global public health problem with far-reaching impacts on both survivors and society. This article focuses on the definition of torture, its epidemiology, its effect on the psyche, body, family, and community, and on its prevention. The discussion includes the mechanisms of international law in place to monitor for human rights abuses....

We assessed the oral health status of 216 refugee torture survivors seeking care at an urban torture treatment center in the United States. Results showed that patients' dental health ranged from poor to fair; 76% had untreated cavities, and approximately 90% required immediate or near-immediate dental care. Torture treatment centers, in addition t...

This paper seeks to explore the potential value of qigong and t'ai chi practice as a therapeutic intervention to aid in the treatment of survivors of torture and refugee trauma. The common effects of torture and refugee trauma are surveyed with a focus on post-traumatic stress disorder. An alternative theoretical framework for conceptualizing and h...

This book is available at. https://www.ensp.unl.pt/dispositivos-de-apoio/cdi/cdi/sector-de-publicacoes/precario/publicacoes_em_coedicao/conteudos-livros-pl/livro-2/contents

The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics is the first systematic and comprehensive reference on clinical research ethics. Under the editorship of experts from the National Institutes of Health of the United States, the book offers a wide-ranging and systematic examination of all aspects of research with human beings. Considering historical t...

How is it possible? What are the personal, professional and political contexts that allow physicians to use their skills to torture and kill rather than heal? What are the psychological characteristics and the social, cultural and political factors that predispose physicians to participate in human rights abuses? What can be done to recognize at-ri...

Prison hunger strikes present clinical, ethical, legal, and human rights challenges to physicians who care for hunger strikers. Controversy continues over the care of prisoners who are hunger striking at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.1 The World Medical Association (WMA) has updated the Declaration of Malta with guidelines on care of hu...

The prevalence of torture among foreign-born patients presenting to urban medical clinics is not well documented. To determine the prevalence of torture among foreign-born patients presenting to an urban primary care practice. A survey of foreign-born patients. Foreign-born patients, age > or = 18, presenting to the Primary Care Clinic at Boston Me...

We conducted a retrospective chart review to look into the utilization of healthcare services of refugees. Between December 1998 and June 2001, 146 refugees received care at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights. The mean age was 39+/- 1 years; 57% were males, and 84% were survivors of torture. A significant number of patients were...

To describe the urologic and sexual complications of male survivors of sexual torture, including prevalence, sequelae, diagnosis, and treatment. Through chart reviews, we identified all male survivors of torture who had been treated for physical and/or psychological symptoms due to sexual trauma at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rig...

Human Rights Quarterly 24.2 (2002) 382-423 Burl Cain, Warden of Angola Penitentiary (Louisiana, 1996) When the state of Texas executed Charlie Brooks, Jr. with an overdose of drugs in 1982, it was the first time that a prison medical staff was utilized to carry out a death sentence in the United States. Because for many Americans, the focus of the...

Refugees and asylum seekers continue to enter the United States and the European Union in record numbers. Some have estimated that between 5-35% of all refugees have suffered torture in their countries of origin. Although general practitioners and specialized physicians are likely to encounter victims of torture as patients, few providers are famil...

urrent estimates suggest that the Human Genome Project (HGP) will be completed in 2003, by which time a comprehensive physical map of the 80000 to 100000 genes that constitute the entire human genome will be actualized. Few deny that this knowl- edge holds great promise. This advance will undoubtedly represent the beginning of a better understandin...

Despite attempts by the world community to address human rights violations, torture and ill treatment were practiced in 132 countries in 1999.1 Unfortunately, physicians are known to have been involved in torture, both by assessing prisoners before and during torture, and also by falsifying medical certificates and autopsy reports.2 With rapid glob...

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 43.4 (2000) 627-629 Book Review Against Relativism: Cultural Diversity and the Search for Ethical Universals in Medicine Against Relativism: Cultural Diversity and the Search for Ethical Universals in Medicine. By Ruth Macklin. Oxford: Oxford Univ....

This article analyzes the ethical issues raised by embryonic stem cell research and recent recommendations by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) regarding federal support for this research. The authors identify the key ethical issue as the moral significance that should be granted to early embryos and discuss arguments supporting the...

Editor—Ethics are not optional in medicine: they are an essential and integral part of health care. A common ethical code for everybody involved in health care, as proposed by Berwick et al,1 is potentially valuable and is to be welcomed, but the role and limitations of such a code need to be recognised. An ethical code cannot provide the answer...

The human rights issues raised by the conduct of maternal-fetal human immunodeficiency virus transmission trials in Africa are not unique to either acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or Africa, but public discussion of these trials presents an opportunity for the United States and other wealthy nations to take the rights and welfare of impoverished...

This paper examines ethical issues related to medical practices with children and adults who are members of a linguistic and cultural minority known as the DEAF-WORLD. Members of that culture characteristically have hearing parents and are treated by hearing professionals whose values, particularly concerning language, speech, and hearing, are typi...

In Reply ?The major focus of our Editorial was on how physicians and lawyers can work together to promote human rights and medical ethics as a fitting legacy to the way physicians and lawyers worked together at Nuremberg to bring the Nazi physicians to justice. Among other things, we proposed a new organization, Global Physicians and Lawyers for Hu...