View 2010: Holocaust Studies and Materials

2010: Holocaust Studies and Materials

ISSN:
1895-247X
eISSN:
2657-3571

Publication date:
2010-12-01

Section: From research workshops

Research on Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto – Ethical Problems

Marta Janczewska

mjanczewska2@gmail.com

works at the Emanuel Ringleblum Jewish Historical Institute, member of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research; published in Midrasz, Teksty Drugie, Kultura and Społeczeństwo, and anthologies

Jewish Historical Institute

Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, 2010: Holocaust Studies and Materials, pages: 439-450

Publication date: 2010-11-30

https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.141

Abstract

Research team of physicians and lab technicians under Izrael Milejkowski’s direction undertook the effort to carry out a series of clinical and biochemical experiments on patients dying of starvation in the Warsaw ghetto so as to receive the fullest possible picture of hunger disease. The research was carried out according to all the rigors of strict scientific discipline, and the authors during their work on academic articles, published it after the war entitled: „Starvation disease: hunger research carried out in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942,” according to their own words, they “supplemented the gap in accordance with the progress of knowledge.” The article is devoted to the reflections over ethical dilemmas of the research team, who were forced in their work to perform numerous medical treatments of experimental nature on extremely exhausted patients. The ill, according to Dr Fajgenblat’s words,“demonstrated negativism toward the research and treatment, which extremely hindered the work, and sometimes even frustrated it.” The article attempts to look at the monumental research work of the Warsaw ghetto doctors as a special kind of response of the medical profession to the feeling of helplessness to the dying patients. The article analyzes the situation of Warsaw ghetto doctors, who undertook the research without support of any outer authority, which could settle their possible ethical dilemmas (Polish deontological codes, European discussions on the conditions of the admissibility of medical research on patients, etc.).

License

Copyright (c) 2010 Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Other articles by the same auhtor(s)

Altmetrics

Google Scholar citations - click icon to view

Statistics

Janczewska, M. (2010). Research on Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto – Ethical Problems. Zagłada Żydów. Studia I Materiały, (Holocaust Studies and Materials), 439-450. https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.141

Share it

                            View 2010: Holocaust Studies and Materials

2010: Holocaust Studies and Materials

ISSN:
1895-247X
eISSN:
2657-3571

Data publikacji:
2010-12-01

Dział: From research workshops