Speaker: Arthur Caplan, PhD
Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics
University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:15-1:30
Title: “Duty and "Euthanasia": The Nurses of Meseritz-Obrawald
Place: Room 110
School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Claire Fagin Hall
418 Curie Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Abstract:Why were nurses able to involve themselves in the systematic murder of psychiatric patients in NaziGermany? How did they reconcile their views of their professional ethics with active involvement in euthanasia?
In 1939, Hitler authorized a programme of `euthanasia' of children and adults with physical and psychiatric disorders. Physicians selected patients who were unable to work or who required extensive care, and ordered the nurses to administer lethal doses of sedatives to them. This talk will review some of the ethical thinking and rationales of nurses involved in this period of so-called 'wild euthanasia' killlings at Meseritz-Obrawald.
The Bates Center Seminar Series features scholarly papers and presentations on the history of nursing and health care and welcomes all interested individuals.
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