Brain science under the Swastika - Lawrence A. Zeidman

Eighty years ago the largest genocide ever occurred in Nazi Europe. This began with the mass extermination of patients with neurologic and psychiatric disorders that Hitler's regime considered
"useless eaters".The neuropsychiatric profession was systematically "cleansed" beginning in 1933, but racism and eugenics had infiltrated the specialty long before that. With the installation of Nazi-principled neuroscientists, mass forced sterilization was enacted, which transitioned to patient murder by the start of World War II. But the murder of roughly 275,000 patients was not enough. The patients' brains were stored and used in scientific publications both during and long after the war. Also, patientsthemselves were used for unethical experiments. Relatively few neuroscientists resisted the Nazis, with some success in the occupied countries. Most neuroscientists involved in unethical actions continued their careers unscathed after the war. Few answered for their actions, and few repented. The legacy of such a depraved era in the history of neuroscience and medical ethics is that codes now exist to protect patients and research subjects. But this protection is possibly subject to political extremes and individual neuroscientists can only protect patients and colleagues if they understand the dangers of a utilitarian, unethical, and uncompassionate mindset.Brain Science under the Swastika is the only comprehensive and scholarly published work regarding the ethical and professional abuses of neuroscientists during the Nazi era. The author has crafted a scathing tour de force exploring the extremes of ethical abuse, but also ways that this can be resisted and hopefully prevented by future generations of neuroscientists and physicians

Dr. Zeidman is from Chicagoland and is a board-certified clinical neurologist and neuromuscular

specialist, along with being a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, with joint appointments in the Department of Neurology and the Neiswanger Institute of Bioethics. In addition to being Neuro-history Associate Editor for the Journal of Child Neurology, Dr. Zeidman has taught seminars on historical-ethical issues in neuroscience. He has been awarded the prestigious Rockefeller Archive Center
Grant-in-Aid, has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters, and has presented his works internationally. He also was instrumental in naming two neuroscientists as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Israel's Yad Vashem Museum for resistance against the Nazis.

The history here is double: on the upper level, it is that of the practices of Nazi Germany for a supposed betterment of population; but, at a subterranean level, it is also the history of the complacency of a profession, which illustrates the fragility of medical ethics, the relativity of codes, and the possibly constant threat of politics.

Alain Touwaide, PhD, UCLA, Doody's Review Service

And this book is timely: despite the appalling abuse of human life by doctors in the Third Reich, the clash between the demands of research and medical ethics is as relevant today as it has ever been...

Giles MacDonogh, Brain