h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wouldn't call this person a doctor. It is an insult to all physicians and surgeons that this man stood under that title.

That's the reason I felt I had to quote the hippocratic oath. To show how this man disregarded everything he should have stood for and became one of the cruellest men of the 20th Century.

criminalor outrageously mad and inhuman? doctors are supposed to save lives and give love and affection scientists do experiment but usually on animals

Inhumane, but not inhuman. And after all, in his own mind he thought he was unlocking the human genetic code to purify his race and improve the lives of the Aryan race at least. However he was insane to the point that he should never have been allowed to have the sort of authority that he did.

You have to call him a doctor. Like it or not he was a qualified doctor and to my knowledge wasn't struck off.

Mengele seems to dominate the headlines when it comes to Nazi doctors. I have just finished reading a book on Karl Brandt. Up until reading this I knew very little of what Karl Brandt was involved in. I knew, of course, that he was tried as a war criminal at Nuremberg but not much is published as to the extent of his atrocities.

How is the hipocratic oath administered when in a country who has a regime that doesn't see what you are doing as illegal or unethical?

I am in no way saying he had any right or just cause to do what he did. But if he was advised and/or believed that what he was doing was not only necessary but was going to in the long term be benficial to what he believed in then does the oath have the same meaning to him?

Interesting question. In all honesty, it wouldn't surprise me if Nazi doctors didn't take the oath (I couldn't find info one way or the other).

The interesting thing about Mengele is that he appeared to be very racialised before the Nazis came to power - so it could be a case of a very unhinged mind being in a position of authority at a very inopportune time. Whether he believed he was doing what he did for the good of Germankind, or whether he just liked to commit medical atrocities is something we might never know the answer to.