著者

沖永 隆子

出版者

宗教哲学会

雑誌

宗教哲学研究 (ISSN:02897105)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.31, pp.31-47, 2014-03-31 (Released:2019-08-08)

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Bioethics was established in the U.S. in the late 1960s and 1970s. It has an aspect of a social movement in that it ‘protects lives’ of subjects and patients in a vulnerable position. Organized medical crime, inhuman army medical research, and human experiments during World War II conducted by Nazi Germany were among the important incidents that contributed to the establishment of the core concepts of bioethics, ‘subjects’ and patients’ rights of self-determination’ and ‘informed consent’. In particular, the Japanese medical community during the alliance with Nazi Germany left a permanent blot on medical history, such as conduction of medical experiments and vivisection for bioweapons development by Unit 731 in Manchuria. Nevertheless, responsibility of the army surgeons of Unit 731 was never investigated due to total destruction of evidence by commanding officer Ishii (who destroyed the experimental laboratory and killed all of the ‘Maruta’ captives), and the secret agreement with the U.S. (instead of providing the U.S. with the experimental data, the war criminals of Unit 731 were discharged). As a result, the ‘medical ethics’ of the surgeons of Unit 731 were never questioned and the suffering and sorrow of the subjects were utterly denied and forgotten. When looking back on the ‘negative heritage’ of modern medical care, we should pay attention to the fact that the tragedies in Japan and Germany did not happen in a specific area or era. In other words, they were not atypical incidents only during the war, but could also happen in times of peace. This paper addresses the dignity of subjects and patients that are in a vulnerable position and should be protected by bioethics, what rights they have and what life is, focusing on forgetting, ignoring, and manipulating the sorrow of human experiments.