June 5, 2008
Statement attributable to:
Edward Langston, MD
AMA Board Chair
"The American Medical Association (AMA) is outraged that Nazi SS member and accused war criminal Hans-Joachim Sewering has received the highest honor from a German medical association. The AMA has conveyed its outrage in a letter of protest (PDF, 37KB) to the German Federation of Internal Medicine, which recently awarded the Guenther-Budelmann medal to Hans-Joachim Sewering.
"Giving this prestigious award to someone who is alleged to have used medicine for harm is an insult to the medical profession's most basic ethical principles. The award should be withdrawn and, as the AMA urged in 1993 and the U.S. Congress unanimously affirmed in 1998, Hans-Joachim Sewering should be investigated for active euthanasia and other war crimes."
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Senior Public Information Officer
AMA Media Relations
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