Objective:

To highlight neurologist and psychiatrist Leo Alexander’s contributions to advancing ethical medical research on human subjects.  

Background:

Modern medical research ethics emerged partly in response to the unethical human experimentation of World War II.

Design/Methods:

Literature Review

Results:

Leo Alexander (1905-1985), son of Gustav Alexander–namesake of ‘Alexander’s Law’ of nystagmus–was a Jewish Austrian-born, neurologist and psychiatrist who immigrated to the United States due to the rise of Nazism.  In intelligence reports on Nazi scientific activities he compiled at World War II’s end, Alexander exposed sadistic and brutal experiments conducted on prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp.  There, under the guise of aviation medicine research, doctors inflicted rapid pressure changes and extreme hypothermia on prisoners, resulting in suffering and death.  Alexander later served on the prosecution team during the Nuremberg ‘Doctors’ Trial’ (USA vs. Brandt) and helped author the Nuremberg Code, a foundational document on informed consent and ethical medical experimentation. After his military service Alexander resumed his medical practice in Boston and wrote extensively on topics as broad as multiple sclerosis and electroconvulsive therapy.

Conclusions:

Leo Alexander, a neurologist and psychiatrist, was instrumental in exposing and prosecuting Nazi human experiments and in drafting the Nuremberg Code, which sets the standards for ethical medical research.