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The New England Journal of MedicineDownloaded from nejm.org at GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY on September 2, 2014. For personal use only. No other uses without permission.
Copyright © 1990 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
The New England Journal of Medicine
Downloaded from nejm.org at GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY on September 2, 2014. For personal use only. No other uses without permission.
Copyright © 1990 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
The New England Journal of Medicine
Downloaded from nejm.org at GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY on September 2, 2014. For personal use only. No other uses without permission.
Copyright © 1990 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
The New England Journal of Medicine
Downloaded from nejm.org at GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY on September 2, 2014. For personal use only. No other uses without permission.
Copyright © 1990 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
The New England Journal of Medicine
Downloaded from nejm.org at GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY on September 2, 2014. For personal use only. No other uses without permission.
Copyright © 1990 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
The New England Journal of Medicine
Downloaded from nejm.org at GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY on September 2, 2014. For personal use only. No other uses without permission.
Copyright © 1990 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
In this week’s lecture video on research ethics, you heard several examples of Nazi medical experiments from WWII. One of
those experiments, carried out by Dr. Rascher*, exposed Nazi prisoners to icy water to test how long humans could survive.
The purpose of the research was to determine how long Nazi pilots could survive after being shot down in the frigid waters
of the North Sea. Rascher’s research determined a “cooling curve” whereby search and rescue crews could predict their
chances of successfully saving pilots and bringing their body temperatures back to normal.
Since Rascher’s experiments, scientists have used his data for more current research and development–specifically cold
water wet suits. For example, Doctor John Hayward, a biology professor at the University of Victoria, on Vancouver Island on
the Canadian west coast, researches hypothermia which involves the testing of cold water survival suits worn by fisherman
in Canada’s frigid ocean waters. Hayward used Rascher’s recorded cooling curve of the human body to infer how long the
suits would protect people at near fatal temperatures. This information can be used by search and rescue teams to
determine the likelihood that a capsized boater is still alive.
Hayward justified using the Nazi hypothermia data in the following way: “I don’t want to have to use the Nazi data, but there
is no other and will be no other in an ethical world. I’ve rationalized it a bit. But not to use it would be equally bad. I’m trying
to make something constructive out of it. I use it with my guard up, but it’s useful.”
Hayward continued to rely on the data even though Rascher’s subjects were lean, malnourished, and emaciated prisoners,
with little or close to no insulating body fat (and therefore unrepresentative of the general populace to be benefitted from the
study). Hayward still trusted the data because the general linear shape of Doctor Rascher’s cooling curve (as the prisoners
neared death) appeared to be consistent with the cooling curve at warm temperatures. Since a better knowledge of survival
in cold water has direct and immediate practical benefits for education in cold water safety, and in the planning of naval
rescue missions at sea, Hayward thinks it criminal NOT to use the available data, no matter how tainted it may be.
Write a post of at least 150 words that considers the following question: While Rascher’s research was clearly unethical, do
you think it is ethical that scientists such as Hayward use Rascher’s data? Explain your reasoning.
*More on Rascher’s medical experiements here: Berger-Nazi_Experiments_NEJM_1990.pdf
