(article
is from the news section of the Jamestown Post Journal)
6/3/2004 - By JOHN WHITTAKER
A key figure in the preparation of the Nuremberg Trial of Nazi doctors accused
of performing illegal medical experiments and procedures before and during
World War II will speak Monday at the Robert H. Jackson Center.
Jack W. Robbins will speak at 12:30 p.m. Monday in the Carl Cappa Auditorium.
Because of sponsorship from M&T Bank and the Sheldon Hall Bed and Breakfast,
the event is free to the public.
Robbins served as legal aide to the U.S. chief of counsel for Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor in Nuremberg during what are called the ''Subsequent Proceedings'' that were held after the trials of Goering, Hess, Kaltenbrunner and others by the International Military Tribunal prosecuted by Robert H. Jackson.
The judgment in the medical case listed 10 principles of permissible experimentation, a code of conduct for the physician known as informed consent that is honored to this day. The so-called Nuremberg Code is a watershed event in the history of medical ethics.
Robbins served as prosecutor in the medical case, or Case 1, where he framed a four-count indictment against 23 Nazi doctors during a trial that lasted 140 days and included testimony of 85 witnesses and almost 1,500 documents. He was also the chief prosecutor in the Pohl case against SS Gen. Oswald Pohl and 17 other SS administrators of the German concentration camps.
The defendants were accused of organizing and participating in war crimes against humanity in the form of medical experiments and medical procedures inflicted on prisoners and civilians. German physicians planned and enacted an euthanasia program to systematically kill those the Nazis deemed unworthy of life, including the mentally retarded, institutionalized mentally ill and the physically impaired.
During World War II, physicians conducted pseudoscientific medical experiments using thousands of concentration camp prisoners without their consent. Many died or were permanently crippled by the experiments with victims, including Jews, Poles, Russians and gypsies.
''The principle of informed consent is important to us today,'' said Gregory Peterson, Jackson Center president. ''The June 7 appearance of Jack W. Robbins should prove to be a most intriguing event.''