Unjustifiable Actions

I do not believe there to be any justification for the “medical” experiments or torture inflicted on Chinese citizens, prisoners of wars, or any other human beings. The three main things researched were therapies, diseases, and chemical warfare. It is arguable, but the development of more destructive and painful weaponry is never morally right. Throughout history new weapons were developed and the creator justified it by saying that it would be an end to all warfare, such as TNT. Supposedly the power of a single weapon could either overpower an opponent or bring their morale so low that the weapon was actually one of “peace”. As we can see, this is not the case. The arguments for disease research and therapy research seems more in a gray area. Often test subjects were already destined for execution, and new information about surgery techniques, vaccines, and other medical breakthroughs seem to be doing a lot of good. However, it is never okay to use someone in a way that would harm them for the sake of all. First of all, not all test subjects were criminals or even necessarily enemies of war; some were women, children, and even babies. Also, one cannot argue either from a Kantian or Virtue Ethics perspective that such behavior was permissible; it is not a universalizable action since nobody would be comfortable making such a sacrifice themselves, and although such passions for medical research may be good they were plainly taken to an extreme.

Interestingly, a member of the SS, Adolf Eichmann, stated during his trial that he was acting according to “a Kantian definition of duty” but later retracted the statement, saying that he didn’t “live entirely according to it.” Author Deborah Lipstadt cites this retraction as evidence that evil people are aware of their own immorality.