Legal and psychiatric reflections on the Arthur Katolo book: Eugenics and Euthanasia. Nazi Experience
Błażej Kmieciak

The issue of human rights violations by Nazi doctors has already been extensively described in the Polish literature. A study of Kępiński, Poltawska and the latest reflections of Bomba are a valuable source that presenting mechanisms of functioning the power of medical pathology. Historians of law and medicine have tried to show the practice taken by surgeons, geneticists, dentists and psychiatrists. Scientists described accurately pseudo-experiments performed on concentration camp prisoners. A lot of attention was also devoted to criminal practices that led to the death of many patients in psychiatric hospitals. It seems, however, that the subject has never lost its relevance. It should be a base for reflection on the dangers of forgetting the fundamental principles of ethical practice in medicine. The book by Arthur Katolo is another study showing the action of German doctors during World War II. This book, however, deserves more attention because of the author’s attempt to show the mechanisms leading to acceptance by the Third Reich society of such activities as forced sterilization of mentally impaired people or “life extinguishing procedures” applied to people with disabilities, in particular mental patients. This study analyses legal and social mechanisms, presented by Katola, which lead to acceptance of activities infringing not only the fundamental human rights, but also the basic rights of patients.