EVENT: ASU Jewish Studies Presents: Bioethics in the Shadow of the Holocaust with Nadav Davidovitch (April 11)

RSVP: https://asuevents.asu.edu/JSBioethics

Bioethics emerged mainly after the Holocaust and since then it has had an enormous impact on the practice of medicine and life sciences research. Despite bioethics’ profound influence, the study of the development and evolution of the bioethical discourse is scarce. My presentation focuses on the tension between the silencing of the Holocaust in bioethical debates on one side and the persistent use of National Socialist medicine metaphors, on the other hand. By delving into the meanings and the implications of this two-edged discourse, using case studies from historical and current Israeli public health practices, I argue that comparing post-war bioethics with pre-war medical practices from a social and political perspective has the potential to depict a more nuanced account of continuities and discontinuities in bioethics.