Neurológia pre prax 1/2016

Dark shadows of medicine

For more than 2,500 years, the medical profession has demonstrably had well-established rules to guide the approach and behaviour to the sick and suffering. However, in the last century in totalitarian regimes, professional failure occurred in many physicians – even the very educated and distinguished ones – that was manifested by the absence of adherence to centuries-old rules and by the support of or even active participation in the killing of the so-called "racially inferior". Even in the present day, a physician must overcome various pitfalls, in order not to betray his mission of being the one to help the sick with his knowledge and empathy in their difficult life situations. The article introduces some little-known or forgotten historical evidence, considers the causes for the above-mentioned professional failure, and seeks to find the reasons that used to lead, and still do, some physicians to act in ways that are the very opposite of the required ethical standards of their profession.

Keywords: genocidal mentality, totalitarian ideology, sterilization, euthanasia, professional failure