"Like Building on Top of Auschwitz": On the Symbolic Meaning of Using Data from the Nazi Experiments, and on Non-Use as a Form of Memorial
Dr. Josef Mengele injected Sara Vigorito with unidentified substances as part of his infamous "twin experiments," causing her to remain ill for seven years after being liberated from Auschwitz. Having survived that ordeal, she is now opposed to the scientific use of data from experiments c...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1993
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| In: |
Journal of law and religion
Year: 1993, Volume: 10, Issue: 2, Pages: 403-431 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Dr. Josef Mengele injected Sara Vigorito with unidentified substances as part of his infamous "twin experiments," causing her to remain ill for seven years after being liberated from Auschwitz. Having survived that ordeal, she is now opposed to the scientific use of data from experiments conducted on concentration camp prisoners. In her mind, using the data today would be "like building on top of Auschwitz."This Article will argue for the symbolic value of not using the Nazi data. Although symbolic value arguments have been recognized in the expansive literature on this question, they have not occupied center stage. Rather, argument concerning the use of the data has largely been conducted in two discourses, morality and pragmatism, which tend in our culture to have a more universal legitimacy. Putting the issue in these terms, however, misses the point. The question raised by the Nazi data cannot be answered satisfactorily by testing the strength of competing moral maxims or by weighing costs and benefits. We should ponder instead what the use or non-use of the data would say about us as a society. This in turn requires both that we evoke some idea about what we want to be (a substantive conception of good), and that we argue about what use or non-use would mean for that self-image (a theory of how symbols get their meanings). |
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| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1051142 |