The use of experimentation on human subjects is a necessary method of advancing medical and public health knowledge. However, it has been abused extensively in the context of genocide and crimes against humanity, especially by the Axis Powers during World War II. Experimentation was part of the state-sanction behavior of Nazi doctors within the broader program of extermination of races considered inferior or of targeted political groups. The medical and health personnel involved were charged with having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II, and many were convicted by a U.S. tribunal set up in tandem with the International Military Tribunal sitting in Nuremberg.

Medical experimentation refers to the testing and evaluation of a new drug or procedure on a human person in order gain generalizable knowledge that can be used for various purposes. In its accepted form, such experimentation is conducted on...