When German doctors betrayed the Hippocratic oath, they were left no ethical standards by which to judge their actions. Hans Munich, M.D., an Auschwitz doctor commented:
One cannot tell young doctors loud and often enough, what would happen, if we don’t follow the Hippocratic oath. The borderline is so delicate and thin, that one commits a criminal act, by just behaving like a doctor, just by treating a patient without asking ourselves: ‘Is this really the best way to help him, or can I earn more money by treating him differently?’ You understand? Even these ethical questions are enough. We don’t have to go as far as euthanasia, or talk about race hygiene and other such things. The medical profession really is, well, maybe not a time bomb, but you must be responsible, if you are to practice it correctly. And Auschwitz is certainly not a bad place to learn, although I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Yet, when the film turns to German medical students, who are asked what the Hippocratic oath is, they were uncertain. When asked if ethics should be a part of the curriculum, one student answered, "I don’t think so. I think we study so many things already in order to become adequate doctors. If you added ethics as another required course, I don’t think it would do our studies any good." Yet history has shown that absent adequate ethical education, the power doctors wield can be lethal.
The film points to the importance and relevance of the Hippocratic oath, and the need to address medical ethics in our own society. As "Newsday" reviewer John Anderson writes, "It was only two years between the first Nazi mercy killing, of a blind, retarded, and malformed baby, to the state-sanctioned murders of those whose handicaps were religion, race, politics and sexual orientation. Somehow, that makes the likes of Jack Kevorkian seem so much less benign."
Katie McGoldrick, an undergraduate at George Washington University, is an intern in the ABCD Office of Policy and Development.