Science and Compassion: John W. Thompson's Trajectory From Swarthmore to the Nuremberg Trials
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2014-11-12
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Swarthmore College
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Biology
Swarthmore College. Peace & Conflict Studies Prog.
Swarthmore College. Peace & Conflict Studies Prog.
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en_US
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Abstract
Paul Weindling’s lecture will focus on his research contained in his new book, John W. Thompson: Psychiatrist in the Shadow of the Holocaust (University of Rochester Press). This book is a biography of a doctor whose revulsion at Nazi human experiments prompted him to seek a humane basis for physician-patient relations. As a military-scientific intelligence officer in 1945, Thompson was the first to name "medical war crimes" as a category for prosecution. His investigations laid the groundwork for the Nuremberg medical trials and for the novel idea of "informed consent." Yet, Thompson has remained a little-known figure, despite his many scientific, literary, and religious connections. Thompson has a connection to Swarthmore College having taught as professor of Physiology and Anatomy from 1929 to 1932.