The Nazi Doctors

first clinical trial.True to form it is reprinted in the turgid prose ofthe New English Bible.However, the modern interest in the ethics of human experimentation dates from the Nazi concentration camps, and the legacy of Nuremberg permeates this volume.Robert Massey puts the history of experimentation in cultural context and cautions us against the use of the retrospectoscope in judgement.Engelhardt argues fairly cogently that randomised clinical trials are not intrinsically unethical, comparing the patient who consents to enter one with the man who joins a poker school and thereby agrees to have his fellow players attempt to deceive him.Unfortunately, this essay like many in the volume assumes a familiarity with the work of Hans Jonas.I would strongly advise anyone who is unfamiliar with it not to bother with this book.Spicker argues against randomised trials before pilot trials have set out the ground rules -all very sensible.The essay by Michael Ruse on interrupting clinical trials is the first statistical paper in the volume and the first one I really warmed to.Is there an obligation to participate in biomedical research?Arthur Copplan makes the (theological) point that to be the recipients of the benefits ofsomeone else's sacrifice does not make us debtors.We are only obliged to be grateful, not to sacrifice ourselves.The Dagis caution us against autoexperimentation, and Ladimer reduces the harm done by experiments to mere money.