Medical Ethics and the Holocaust |
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Some of the world's most influential scientists, physicians, educators and authors, including three Nobel Laureates, offered their views on some of the most challenging questions of modern medical, ethical, scientific, legal and public health policy in a public lecture series presented by Holocaust Museum Houston from Sept. 7, 2007 through Feb. 3, 2008.
The lecture series explored how the medical practices of the Third Reich continue to challenge modern medical ethics. Speakers covered topics such as euthanasia and the Human Genome Project, the lasting legacy of the Nuremberg trials, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and how the doctor-patient relationship has changed over the years since the Holocaust.
Holocaust Museum Houston’s unique exhibit “How Healing Becomes Killing: Eugenics, Euthanasia and Extermination” and 15-part “Medical Ethics and the Holocaust: Dr. Michael E. DeBakey Medical Ethics Lecture Series" told the story of the indispensable and enthusiastic participation of physicians and biomedical scientists in the murder of their very own patients and explored how – despite the world’s horror at their activities – those same questions haunt modern medicine today.
The Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at The University of Texas at Austin offers streaming videos of the lectures below, available for viewing free in streaming captioned QuickTime video. The video player opens in a new window when clicked.
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Michael E. DeBakey Medical Ethics Lecture Series
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September 9, 2007 “Science and Medicine After The Holocaust” Moderated by Ferid Murad 1998 Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine); Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston
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September 9, 2007 “The Discovery of DNA: Implications for the 21st Century” James Dewey Watson 1962 Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine); one of the four discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule; Head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health 1978-1992

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September 9, 2007 “In Search of Memory” Eric Kandel, M.D. 2000 Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine) Fred Kavli Professor, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
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September 18, 2007 "Why is It So Hard to Learn the Ethical Lessons of the Holocaust?" Arthur Caplan The Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
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September 25, 2007 “A More Perfect Human: The Promise and the Peril of Modern Science” Leon Kass, M.D., Ph.D. Hertog Fellow American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy
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October 2, 2007 “From Long Island to Auschwitz: The Surprising Origin of the Master Race Concept” Edwin Black Award-winning New York Times and international best-selling investigative author whose work focuses on genocide and hate
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October 2, 2007 “Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis” Sandra Carson, M.D. Professor and Medical Director, Assisted Reproductive Technology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
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October 9, 2007 Panel Discussion: “What Should We Tell Medical Students About Racial Hygiene, Cultural Diversity, the Doctor-Patient Relationship, and Professionalism?” Theresa Duello, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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October 9, 2007 Panel Discussion: “What Should We Tell Medical Students About Racial Hygiene, Cultural Diversity, the Doctor-Patient Relationship, and Professionalism?” Jordan Cohen, M.D. President Emeritus of Association of American Medical Colleges

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October 16, 2007 "What is the Status of the Doctor-Patient Relationship?” Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D. Chairman, The President’s Council on Bioethics, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University
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October 16, 2007 “What is the Status of the Government-Citizen Relationship in the United States Today?” Ward Connerly Founder and Chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, President and Chief Executive Officer of Connerly & Associates, Inc., author of the autobiography "Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences"
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October 23, 2007 "Frankenstein or the More Perfect Human: Who Will It Be?” Susan E. Lederer, Ph.D. Associate Professor, History of Medicine, Yale University
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October 23, 2007 “Immediate Gratification and the Quest for Perfection: A Frank Discussion about the Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports” Mark Adickes, M.D. Co-Medical Director, The Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine & Human Performance, Memorial Hermann, Houston, Texas
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October 30, 2007 “Disability and Genocide – Where Are We Today?” Lex Frieden Senior Vice President, Memorial Hermann; Chair, National Council on Disability; with Richard Petty, Independent Living Research Utilization; Jacquie Brennan, Director, Center for Paralegal Studies, University of Houston; Bill Monroe, Executive Associate Dean of the Honors College, University of Houston; and Wendy Wilkinson, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine

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November 6, 2007 Michael Burleigh’s film “Selling Murder” followed by lecture: "Cinematic Perspectives on Euthanasia and Assisted-Suicide" Glen O. Gabbard, M.D. Brown Foundation Professor of Psychoanalysis, Professor, and Director, Baylor Psychiatry Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine
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November 13, 2007 “The Legacy of the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial to American Bioethics and Human Rights” George J. Annas, J.D., M.P.H. Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair, Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health
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November 20, 2007 “Power for Life or Power for Death? How and Why Science and Religion can Work Together for Life After the Holocaust” Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Ph.D. President, Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation
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November 20, 2007 “Science, Medicine and Religion after the Holocaust” John M. Haas, Ph.D. S.T.L. President, National Catholic Bioethics Center

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November 27, 2007 “Physician Aid in Dying: When and Why Should This Option be Available? What Happens When Aid in Dying is Legal?” Kathryn L. Tucker, J.D. Director of Legal Affairs for Compassion & Choices, Co-counsel in Oregon vs. Ashcroft
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November 27, 2007 “Is Physician-Assisted Suicide Ever Permissible?” Wesley Smith, LL.B. Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, and an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture
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December 4, 2007 “Academic Medicine during the Nazi Period and Implications for Creating Awareness of Professional Responsibility Today?” Prof. Dr. Volker Roelcke Director, Institute of the History of Medicine, Germany

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December 4, 2007 “Academic Medicine during the Nazi Period and Implications for Creating Awareness of Professional Responsibility Today?” William Seidelman, M.D. Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

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December 11, 2007 “Mad, Bad or Evil: How Physician Healers Turn to Torture, Murder and Genocide From the Nazi Doctors to Abu Ghraib” Michael Grodin, M.D. Professor of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights, Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health; Professor of Socio-Medical Sciences, Community Medicine, and Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine
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December 11, 2007 “Is Medicine a Pacifist Vocation, or Should Doctors Help Build Bombs??" Michael L. Gross, Ph.D. Chair, Division of International Relations, School of Political Sciences, The University of Haifa, Israel
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January 7, 2008 “From Nuremberg to the Human Genome and Beyond – From Human Rights to Human Interests” Henry T. “Hank” Greely, J.D. Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
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January 17, 2008 “21st Century Genetics: Maximizing Benefits, Minimizing Harms” Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. Director, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
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January 17, 2008 “What Does 21st Century Eugenics Look Like?” Christine Rosen, Ph.D. Fellow for the Project on Biotechnology and American Democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and senior editor of The New Atlantis
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January 22, 2008 TORCH Jewish Medical Ethics Conference George Noon, M.D. Professor and Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery and Assist Devices in the Michael E. DeBakey Dept. of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

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TORCH Jewish Medical Ethics Conference Avraham Steinberg, M.D. Director of the Center for Medical Ethics, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem and winner of the Israel Prize for his Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics

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Series Moderator Sheldon Rubenfeld, M.D, F.A.C.P, F.A.C.E., created “Medical Ethics and the Holocaust” and served as chairman of its Steering Committee. He also served as moderator for The Michael E. DeBakey Medical Ethics Lecture Series.
A clinical professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, he has taught “Healing by Killing: Medicine During the Third Reich” for three years and “Jewish Medical Ethics” for seven years.
An endocrinologist in private practice, Rubenfeld is known for pioneering the fine needle aspiration biopsy of the thyroid gland. He is the published author of multiple publications about endocrinology, including the first and second editions of "Could It Be My Thyroid?"
Rubenfeld is the founding chair of the Maimonides Society of Houston and of the Texas Hadassah Medical Research Foundation. He serves on the advisory board of Houston Medicine.
In 1998, Rubenfeld was the recipient of the Thyroid Society for Education & Research’s “Dr. Robert Graves Award.” His peers selected him as the “Top Endocrinologist” in Houston in both editions of the “Guide to Top Doctors” published by the Center of the Study of Services, as one of America’s “Top Doctors for Cancer” in 2005, and as a “Texas Super Doc” from 2005 through 2007.
Rubenfeld is originally from Brooklyn, New York and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in endocrinology and metabolism and in internal medicine.
Steering Committee Dr. Sheldon Rubenfeld, Chair Peter N. Berkowitz Melissa Brunicardi, R.N. Nancy S. Dinerstein Kelli Cohen Fein, M.D. Walter Hecht The Honorable Manuel D. Leal Leo Linbeck III Cheyenne Martin, Ph.D., R.N. Eric Pulaski Anna Steinberger, Ph.D. Dr. John Thrash Ileana Trevino Susan Myers, Museum Executive Director
Advisory CommitteeCharlotte Berkowitz, Ph.D. Baruch Brody, Ph. D. C. Thomas Caskey, M.D. Seth Chandler, J.D. Thomas R. Cole, Ph.D. Mary A. Daffin Ralph D. Feigin, M.D. David Fine Donald J. Foss, Ph.D. O. Howard Frazier, M.D. Richard A. Gibbs, Ph.D. Ron Girotto Anthony M. Gotto Jr., M.D., Ph.D. Jean Herzog, Ph.D. Rabbi Samuel E. Karff Joan Krause, J.D. David Leebron, J.D. John Mendelsohn, M.D. Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D. Carol Quillen, Ph.D. Stanley G. Schultz, M.D. Marc J. Shapiro Ira Shephard, LL.B. Patricia Starck, D.S.N., R.N. Jay H. Stein, M.D. John D. Stobo, M.D. Richard E. Wainerdi, Ph.D. Thomas M. Wheeler, M.D. James T. Willerson, M.D. Dr. Zbignew J. Wojciechowski Daniel J. Wolterman
Program Sponsors The William & Margaret Alkek Foundation AV2Go Dr. Milton and Laurie Boniuk The Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice University Continental Airlines Jack and Nancy Dinerstein Martin and Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein Morris and Amanda Gelb Lyondell Chemical Walter and Punkin Hecht Barry and Rosalyn Margolis John Mendelsohn, M.D. Lufthansa Airlines Nodus Solutions William Osher, M.D. Park Plaza Hospital and Medical Center Pierpont Communications, Inc. St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System David and Charis Smith Emil Steinberger, M.D. and Anna Steinberger, Ph.D. Corby and Barbara Robertson Texas Children’s Hospital University of Houston University of Texas Health Science Center Houston University of Texas Medical School at Houston University of Texas School of Nursing
Exhibit and Catalog Sponsors Gateway Logistics Group, Inc. Lufthansa Airlines Dr. Sheldon Rubenfeld and Linda Rubenfeld
DeBakey Lecture Series Sponsors Aquinas Corporation EMD Serono, Inc. Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Huffington Foundation The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston The Maimonides Society Memorial Hermann David, Ira and Mindy Mitzner Eric and Karen Pulaski The Methodist Hospital Torah Outreach Center of Houston (TORCH) University of Houston’s Elizabeth D. Rockwell Ethics and Leadership Lecture
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