Nazi Scientific Research: A Moral Quandry

[Kekerusey]

Check this:

Brains of Nazi Victims Uncovered in German Psychiatric Institute.

Clearly there is a moral component to this story but I wonder if the data from these should remain available for cautious (by which I mean controlled) examination ... though I suspect some were killed specifically to source such specimens, part of me wonders if making the data available for the good of the human race might make their involuntary sacrifice to the Nazi cause less pointless and horrendous. Maybe this isn't the right thing to do it with but it seems to me the question should be asked about such specimens and data.

Keke

[Recusant]

According to the story, they've already decided the fate of the specimens themselves. It sounds like nothing has been done with them since 1990 at the latest. Most likely whatever data was gained before then is already publicly available. It such data proves of use to benefit human well-being, I don't see any insurmountable moral quandary.

[Icarus]

I too see no moral quandary here. The fact is that the donors are quite dead already. That their  tissue could be of some positive use should be sufficient reason to keep it intact.  Do we not have organ donors here in the US? Yes we do. My own directive will specifies that any organ or tissue that can be used should be used. I expect that there are others right here in River City with the same states of mind.

[Asmodean]

Just because the nazis did it, does not automatically make it a bad thing. They pretty much made Volkswagen, jet airplane, rocketry and likely a whole bunch of other stuff which we rely on today. (Diesel-electric powerplant for locomotives and such. Did they not pioneer that too?)

I think that whatever data is available in the case at hand should be available with no more regard to the cautiousness of its examination than any other data of the same kind. It's already there, after all.