Doctors aren’t always heroes. Doctors often practice things that are illegal, whether using others to experiment or just themselves. However, some are good doctors and are what society expects in a doctor which is education, ethics and honesty. Based on a survey by Miranda Hitti about what is an ideal doctor, one patient said, “We want doctors who can empathize and understand our needs as a whole person. … We want to feel that our doctors have incredible knowledge in their field.
But every doctor needs to know how to apply their knowledge with wisdom and relate to us as plain folks who are capable of understanding our disease and treatment. ” Ruth Westheimer shows that she’s a good doctor by caring about her patients and being honest, whereas Josef Mengele lied and performed certain procedures on patients that were crucial. Ruth Westheimer and Dr. Josef Mengele both have an education yet, Dr. Mengele lacks the same ethics and honesty towards patients. Ruth Westheimer grew up in the Wake of the Great Depression, and out of the economic ruin grew Nazism and Hitler.
When Ruth was 17 World War II ended and she had no home or family all she had was hope of starting over again a place where she would feel welcomed. Ruth’s life took many tragic turns. In 1949 she got her first teaching job working with Yemenite children and met David, an Israeli soldier, who she married. The next year she Ruth studied psychology in Paris at the Sorbonne. She later took a job at Planned Parenthood, Dr. Ruth felt so comfortable talking about sex that “she began to pursue a career in sexual education (German Corner). In 1970 Dr. Ruth received her doctorate in education from the Columbia Teachers College. She began teaching that same year at Lehman College in the Bronx (German Corner). After graduating from high school in 1930, Mengele drifted away from the family business and looked into medicine. In 1935 Dr. Mengele earned his PhD from University of Munich where he received his PhD in Anthropology. In 1937 he was offered a position as a research assistant with the third Reich’s Institute for Heredity Biology and Race Research.
There he met the man that changed his life, Professor Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, “the most acclaimed racial scientist of his day“. Mengele then learned that it was tolerable to experiment on human beings if it was for the good of science. Professor von Verschuer influenced Mengele so much that Mengele joined the Nazi Party and immediately applied for the highest group of the society, SS (Schutzstaffel). In 1940 Mengele was drafted into the army and served as a soldier. He didn’t just fight on the battlefield, but he also got to practice medicine (Doctor Josef Mengele: The Angel of Death)
Ever since then Dr. Ruth took a job at Planned Parenthood as a sex educator, she’s helped people by answering questions about sex. Dr. Ruth went on air at a New York radio station and that’s where her audiences grew month after month and got piles of fan mail. Next, she obtained columns in newspaper, wrote a book, made home videos, appeared on television shows and launched her own web site in 1996 (German Corner). Dr. Mengele experimented on inmates at concentration camps particularly dwarfs and twins- which he would call his children. He would take twins’ blood and inject them into the other one. In order to determine if eye color could be genetically altered, Mengele had dye injected into the eyes of several twin subjects. This always resulted in painful infections, and sometimes even blindness (Mengele’s Research). ” He sewn two children together to make Siamese twins. He would then kill them by injecting chloroform into their hearts.
According to Dr. Nyiszli, “Mengele’s purpose was to establish the genetic cause for the births of twins, in order to facilitate the formulation of a program for doubting the birthrate of the ‘Aryan’ race (Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project). Dr. Ruth shows her honest by being blunt when answering questions for the patients and when counseling them. By her opening her own web site shows that she cares about others and wants to help them by giving them honest advice. “Dr. Ruth Westheimer has received many awards for her work, including an honorary doctorate degree from Trinity College in 2004 and the Medal for Distinguished Service from the Teacher’s College at Columbia University (Dr. Ruth Westheimer Biography)). ” Dr. Mengele would trick children with candy or putting them in a car with a ed cross tricking them to go with him so he would later experiment on them. Once under U. S. custody, he was released although he was in the list of wanted war criminals. He then worked as a farmhand near Rosenheim, Bavaria under false papers indicating he was a physician (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). ” Doctors have the responsibility to give educated advice, be a good role model and be honest to their patients. A person labeled as a doctor doesn’t necessarily mean that they are good people. Also, their education also doesn’t mean people should trust them. Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Dr. Josef Mengele both have an education yet, Dr. Mengele lacks the same ethics and honesty towards patients.
Works Cited
http://www. angelfire. com/wi2/Lena/mengele. html http://www. biography. com/people/dr-ruth-westheimer-9542073 http://www. germanheritage. com/biographies/mtoz/westheimer. html http://isurvived. org/drMengele. html http://www. trutv. com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/research_5. html http://www. ushmm. org/wlc/en/article. php? ModuleId=10007060
