Medical ethics under a totalitarian regime: German dentists and the Third Reich.

After 133 days of long debates, the trial of twenty three Nazi doctors ended in Nuremberg on 21 August 1947. 1 Seven of the doctors were sentenced to death, five to life imprisonment, two to 20 years imprisonment, two to 10 years imprisonment, and seven were discharged. On the very eve of the announcements of the sentences, 10 essential principles that should in future govern every human experiment were announced to the eyes of the world by the Court of Nuremberg. The notion of medical ethic was in its early stages. With this judgement the Court defined its fundamental principles.