Recent and Upcoming CMATH Events
November 2020
CMATH Executive Director Sheldon Rubenfeld and CMATH Scholar Daniel Sulmasy just published their long-awaited book Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: Before During, and After the Holocaust. This magnificent volume achieves their four objectives:
- To bring the history of medicine and the Holocaust to a new audience. While some historians of medicine have a clear grasp of the Nazi euthanasia programs, practicing physicians and bioethicists know little if anything about medicine during the Third Reich and, if they do, their knowledge is often limited to unethical medical experiments and the Nuremberg Code.
- To explore this history from the perspective of biomedical ethics. Other accounts have looked to the psychology of participating physicians but not to the underlying moral justifications for the atrocities perpetrated by the German medical profession, especially the euthanasia programs. For instance, because it has not been translated from the German, very few English speakers are aware of the Nazi medical ethics textbook by physician Rudolf Ramm who put forth serious ethical arguments for the practice of euthanasia. Involuntary euthanasia was neither the work of a lunatic fringe nor of physicians coerced by Nazis into carrying out these programs—German physicians were not pawns; rather, they thought of themselves as ethical pioneers in justifying and implementing various programs, including euthanasia.
- To delve into the pre-Nazi arguments for euthanasia. These include the hermeneutical approach to medicine that was current in the early twentieth century before the Nazis took power, as well as popular ideas about technology, suffering, control, and eugenics. We sought to show how these arguments supported the development and implementation of the Nazi euthanasia programs.
- To explore possible continuities between the justifications that undergirded the Nazi euthanasia programs and contemporary calls for PAS and euthanasia. Is the voluntary/involuntary distinction sufficient to mark a moral difference? Is it sufficient as a safeguard in public policy? What evidence was there of a “slippery slope” then, and can it tell us something about the use of such arguments today? Is the use of historical analogy between the present time and the Nazi period simply offensive, or can it be explored rationally? What are the limits of such a method? What can be learned?
More information including purchase information can be found by going to:
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793609502/Physician-Assisted-Suicide-and-Euthanasia-Before-During-and-After-the-Holocaust
or Amazon at:
Monday, January 29, 2018
Webinar: Ethical Issues in Dealing with Human Remains from the Holocaust
Center for Medicine after the Holocaust is pleased to present “The Vienna Protocol: Ethical Issues in Dealing with Human Remains from the Holocaust” on January 29, 2018 at 12:30 PM Central (1:30 EST). This webinar will review recent discoveries of human remains from the Holocaust, both underground and in museums and medical schools, and the challenges of disposing of them. Leading international scholars on medicine and the Holocaust will discuss two key issues:
• The ethical issues around the initial use of Holocaust victims in medical research and education; and
• The religious and moral challenges of how to properly dispose of human remains as they are discovered.
Speakers will include Dr. Sabine Hildebrandt, Dr. William Seidelman and Rabbi Joseph Polak.
Click here for more information and to register for this webinar.
Monday, April 2, 2018 - Friday, May 11, 2018
Baneful Medicine: an exhibition considering medicine during and after the Holocaust with a program in Cooper Union’s Great Hall on April 24, 2018
The Center for Medicine after the Holocaust (CMATH) and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), will sponsor Baneful Medicine, an art exhibit curated by Prof. Andrew Weinstein about medicine during and after the Holocaust at the Great Hall of Cooper Union, 7 East 7th St in New York City, from April 2 to May 11, 2018. On April 24, 2018 from 6-8:30 pm CU’s Great Hall will host a program including a presentation about medicine and the Holocaust by CMATH Executive Director Dr. Sheldon Rubenfeld and a panel discussion moderated by Prof. Weinstein. The panel will include selected artists whose exhibited works illustrate aspects of medicine before, during, and after the Holocaust. Some of the their works are being shown for the first time and some were previously exhibited in Prague, Budapest, and Kiev. Admission is free—advanced registration is not required—food and wine will be served and, for more information, email info@medicineaftertheholocaut.org
Sunday, May 13, 2018 - Saturday, May 19, 2018
Holocaust Site Trip and Conference (Berlin): Physician-assisted Suicide and Euthanasia after the Holocaust
CMATH will sponsor its fifth to European medical sites relevant to the Holocaust from May 13-19, 2018. The trip will focus on Physician-assisted Suicide and Euthanasia after the Holocaust and feature a one-day conference on this subject by scholars from Europe where euthanasia has been legal for some time. For more information about the itinerary, click on ChampionsBER18 or email info@medicineaftertheholocaust.org