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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I do not agree with John Thornton when he
writes:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>"Depends on the motivation for the research. You trust Nazi work on smoking
<BR>because it is unrelated to Nazi beliefs. Do you trust Nazi research on
<BR>eugenics? Of course not. Motive makes a difference, pretending otherwise is
<BR>sticking your head in the sand."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>As I recall the recent research on the matter, Nazi
research on smoking was done for the worst of motives.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Nazis preoccupation with pollution was closely
related to their pursuit of purity, which also motivated their research into
racial purity.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The point was that with the very worst motives,
they discovered something that was true. Sadly, anti-German prejudice after the
war meant that the association between smoking and cancer, that scientists had
demonstrated, was forgotten, until US research reproduced their efforts after
the war.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the same way, the science behind Von Braun's
rockets was good science, even though its motivation was the obliteration of my
grandparents.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Motive can motivate you, but it cannot make
falsehood into truth. The eugenic 'science' was not just ugly motives, but bad
science. Mengele's hideous torture chamber never produced one shred of real
understanding. The test of the science is the reproducibility of its findings,
not the motivations of its sponsors.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Refusing to learn from science that is supported by
people you do not like is the very definition of prejudice. It is putting your
head in the sand.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>