The Goals of Medicine in a Post-Holocaust Society

Abstract

AbstractDetermining the goals and purpose of the medical profession has long been a topic of debate among physicians and scholars alike. If medicine is a practice, then it is necessary to define the aim of the practitioner’s actions. Regardless of the differing perspectives, there is consensus that the promotion and preservation of individual health and well-being is a primary component of medicine. However, an exploration of the medical community’s active participation in the systematic labeling, persecution, forced sterilization, experimentation and eventual mass murder of millions of people deemed inferior or unfit during the Holocaust reveals decidedly different goals. Examining the process by which healers became killers provides an opportunity to hold the profession accountable, take stock of the moral vulnerabilities of physicians and use these lessons to create a post-Holocaust moral ethos that values rehumanization and human dignity.