The Berlin Code of 1900 - Essay Example

The Berlin of 1900 was created as a result of questionable and unethical experiments on humans that were done by Albert Neisser, a German microbiologist. This was during a time when scientific information really began to grow and doctors and scientists alike were experimenting whenever possible and by whatever means (Krasemann & Thiroux, 2008). However, the experiments done on unsuspecting human subjects by Doctor Neisser called into question the morality and ethics of experimentation on human subjects.

It was Doctor Rudolf Virchow, a Berlin microbiologist, that brought to light the issues surrounding ethics, and with the help of American doctors, William Osler and William Welch wrote the Berlin Code of 1900. The Berlin Code gave a list of ethical conditions that needed to be met before humans could be used in medical experimentation. Adolf Hitler, not to our surprise, decided that the Berlin Code had exceptions, people that were not considered to meet the standards that were set down by the Code.

He felt that Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and mentally disabled people did not count as citizens and, as such, did not have the same rights as others. It was because of this that Hitler allowed cruel and unethical experiments to take place in the concentration camps of World War II. These were not as many medical experiments as they were series of various tortures. In 1947, the Nuremberg Tribunal condemned Nazi doctors for their acts of torture and murder as opposed to medical experimentation.

Due to what took place at the hands of Hitler and his Nazi doctors, the Nuremberg Code was created (Marrus, 1999). The Nuremberg Code hardly differs from the original Berlin Code, except that it made it clear that the guidelines extended to all human beings. Ten guidelines were outlined to ensure the utmost protection for humans during medical experimentation, including under certain conditions that it is not safe to use humans for experimentation, which would be situations that could cause injury, disability, or death.

More guidelines were also added in the Nuremberg Code, as opposed to what was in the Berlin Code, to ensure that risks would be tended to before taking on a human subject in experiments; if risks would arise during the experimentation, the study would have to be terminated. The greatest change in the alteration of Codes as a result of Hitler’s actions is the consent that must now be given by the human subject (Vollmann & Winau, 1996). If they do not wish to participate in the experiment, they do not have to.

Furthermore, they must be informed upfront about what will take place in the experiment and if there are any possible mild risks. Now, people have a choice, and if they are unable to make the choice for themselves, nobody else has a right to.