The origins of informed consent: the International Scientific Commission on Medical War Crimes, and the Nuremburg code.

The Nuremberg Code has generally been seen as arising from the Nuremberg Medical Trial. This paper examines developments prior to the Trial, involving the physiologist Andrew Conway Ivy and an inter-Allied Scientific Commission on Medical War Crimes. The paper traces the formulation of the concept of a medical war crime by the physiologist John West Thompson, as part of the background to Ivy's code on human experiments of 1 August 1946. It evaluates subsequent responses by the American Medical Association, and by other war crimes experts, notably Leo Alexander, who developed Ivy's conceptual framework. Ivy's interaction with the judges at Nuremberg alerted them to the importance of formulating ethical guidelines for clinical research.

From international to zonal trials: the origins of the Nuremberg medical trial.

This article examines how plans to have a second International Military Tribunal led to the Medical Trial at Nuremberg. While the British opposed a second international trial because of their distrust of the Soviets, they supported a plan for a series of special zonal trials to be conducted by the American authorities at Nuremberg. In December 1945 the British became aware of the extent of medical war crimes committed by the Germans. Their investigation led to an eventual handover to the Americans of a group of German doctors for trial at Nuremberg. At the same time the British and French Supported an International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of Medical War Crimes.

Austrian medical refugees in Great Britain: from marginal aliens to established professionals.

About 360 Austrian physicians were refugees in the UK between 1938 and 1945. This paper traces their experiences. Apart from a scheme to admit only fifty physicians and forty dental surgeons, support ranged from domestic service permits to the backing from scientists keen to modernize British medicine. After the wave of internments in 1940, it was possible for physicians to be placed on the Temporary Register of Medical Practitioners. Three case studies of three types of Austrian contributions to child health are presented. The position improved after World War 2 when full registration of Austrian qualifications became possible, and the National Health Service provided career opportunities for clinical specialists. Only circa 10% of the medical refugees from Austria returned there eventually. Examples are given of successful careers in a wide range of medical specialties.

Human guinea pigs and the ethics of experimentation: the BMJ's correspondent at the Nuremberg medical trial.

Though the Nuremberg medical trial was a United States military tribunal, British forensic pathologists supplied extensive evidence for the trial. The BMJ had a correspondent at the trial, and he endorsed a utilitarian legitimation of clinical experiments, justifying the medical research carried out under Nazism as of long term scientific benefit despite the human costs. The British supported an international medical commission to evaluate the ethics and scientific quality of German research. Medical opinions differed over whether German medical atrocities should be given publicity or treated in confidence. The BMJ's correspondent warned against medical researchers being taken over by a totalitarian state, and these arguments were used to oppose the NHS and any state control over medical research.

Between bacteriology and virology: the development of typhus vaccines between the First and Second World Wars.

This paper provides an overview of the development of typhus vaccines between the first and second world wars. It is shown that there was a shift in the classification of the causal Rickettsiae from being classed as bacteria to being conceptualised as a type of virus. This 'paradigm switch' stimulated interest in the possibility of producing an effective medicine.

From sentiment to science: children's relief organisations and the problem of malnutrition in inter-war Europe.

The transformation of the ethos of children's relief organisations from sentimentalism into science was reflected in the rise of nutritional science, eugenics, child psychology and child guidance. A related transition occurred in the organisational forms of child welfare organisations: with the rise of welfare states, government organisations took an increasing role. Internationally there was a move to expand the scope of charities relieving children in distress to broader strategies promoting child welfare. In this paper I consider these shifts in the case of international measures to relieve child starvation and to promote child welfare between the First and Second World Wars. I examine how health organisations had to move away from relief work and establish programmes seeking to relate the developing scientific understanding of nutrition to a range of factors affecting health.