Ethics and access to teaching materials in the medical library: the case of the Pernkopf atlas

MacIntyre, C Raina; King, Catherine L; Isaacs, David

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00224.x

Topics

To the Editor: Last year was the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. We would like to draw your attention to an anatomy textbook, Atlas of topographical and applied human anatomy, authored by a Nazi physician, Eduard Pernkopf, and the alarming evidence which has emerged about the source of subjects used for the illustrations of this book.

1 National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases
2 Department of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and Member, Clinical Ethics Advisory Committee, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW 2145.

Correspondence: rainam@chw.edu.au

1. Atlas MC. Ethics and access to teaching materials in the medical library: the case of the Pernkopf atlas. Bull Med Libr Assoc 2001; 89: 51-58.
2. Angetter DC (on behalf of the Senate Project of the University of Vienna). Anatomical science at the University of Vienna 1938-45. Lancet 2000; 355: 1454-1457.
3. Ernst E. A leading medical school seriously damaged. Vienna 1938. Ann Intern Med 1995; 122: 789-792.
4. Hubbard C. Eduard Pernkopf’s Atlas of topographical and applied human anatomy: the continuing ethical controversy. Anat Rec 2001; 265: 207-211.
5. Norton SA. On first looking into Pernkopf’s atlas (Part 1). Arch Dermatol 2001; 137: 549-551.

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