Jacob "Jay" Katz (October 20, 1922 – November 17, 2008) was an American

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

professor whose career was devoted to addressing complex issues of

medical ethics Medical ethics is an applied branch of ethics which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. T ...

and other ethical problems involving the overlaps of ethics, law, medicine and psychology.

Early life

Katz was born in

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on October 20, 1922, where his father owned a department store. After

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

came to power in 1933,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

implemented rules stripping the family of their German citizenship. His father obtained a

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

n passport, which he used to leave Germany and travel to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

as a 16-year-old. He made it to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

through Italy and England, with his parents and brother joining him in the United States in 1940.Hevesi, Dennis
"Dr. Jay Katz, 86, Dies; Explorer of Ethics Issues"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', November 19, 2008. Accessed November 20, 2008. He graduated from

The University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

in 1944 and was awarded his

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

degree in 1949 from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. He completed

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

and residency programs in New York, and then enlisted in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. He served as a

First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a se ...

and

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

at the Air Force Hospital at

Maxwell Air Force Base Maxwell Air Force Base , officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force (USAF) installation under the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The installation is located in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. ...

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...

."Yale Law School Mourns Professor Jay Katz; Read Dean Koh Memorial Remarks"
,

press release dated November 17, 2008. Accessed November 20, 2008.

Career

Katz began his four-decades-long affiliation with

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1953 when he became Chief Resident at the

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the medical school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. It is the sixth-oldest m ...

's outpatient clinic. He started teaching psychiatry in 1955 and became an assistant professor of psychiatry and law at Yale University in 1958, teaching psychiatry and law. He continued to teach as an emeritus professor after his retirement from Yale in 1993. He served on the committee which established the terms of patient privilege in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

for

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

s and their patients. Enacted in 1961, it was used to establish comparable terms in the

Federal Rules of Evidence First adopted in 1975, the Federal Rules of Evidence codify the evidence law that applies in United States federal courts. In addition, many states in the United States have either adopted the Federal Rules of Evidence, with or without local v ...

that apply across the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Katz was named to serve on a federal inquiry into the

Tuskegee Syphilis Study The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (informally referred to as the Tuskegee Experiment or Tuskegee Syphilis Study) was a study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Cent ...

, an experiment started in 1932 by the

United States Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services which manages public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The assistant s ...

in which about 400 black men in Alabama infected with

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

were left untreated, with at least 28 of the study subjects dying from the untreated disease and many more suffering severe injury. The group concluded that the research was "ethically unjustified", that the participants should have been given

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...

and called for greater federal oversight and protection of subjects in medical studies. Katz protested that the group should have issued a stronger response, noting that the subjects were "exploited, manipulated and deceived". Dr. Katz noted that the question of when "can human beings be used for purposes of acquisition of knowledge" must be answered and that the disadvantaged and disempowered are often deliberately chosen as subjects. After efforts were made by scientists to make use of data from

Nazi human experimentation Nazi human experimentation was a series of medical experiments on prisoners by Nazi Germany in its concentration camps mainly between 1942 and 1945. There were 15,754 documented victims, of various nationalities and age groups, although the t ...

, conducted on concentration camp inmates against their will, Katz emphasized that "however hard we might try, we cannot separate the data from the way they were obtained". He was appointed to serve on the 1994

Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments was established in 1994 to investigate questions of the record of the United States government with respect to human radiation experiments. The special committee was created by President of the ...

, established by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

to investigate some 30 experiments in which individuals were unwittingly exposed to radiation. Katz issued a statement as part of the committee's report, stating that his "most serious reservations" were about the issue of protections to study subjects, and that the existing

informed consent Informed consent is an applied ethics principle that a person must have sufficient information and understanding before making decisions about accepting risk. Pertinent information may include risks and benefits of treatments, alternative treatme ...

process invites "repetitions of the dignitary insults which unconsenting citizen-patients suffered during the Cold War". In 1996, the

U.S. Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

implemented changes that allowed doctors to perform medical studies on patients without their consent in certain situations where the patient has a life-threatening condition and cannot offer consent, where the community has been notified about the experiment and where the FDA has reviewed the plans in advance and approved of the protocol. Katz insisted that these changes violated the

Nuremberg Code The Nuremberg Code () is a set of research ethics, ethical research principles for human experimentation created by the court in ''Doctors' trial, U.S. v Brandt'', one of the Subsequent Nuremberg trials that were held after the World War II, Seco ...

enacted in response to Nazi human experimentation conducted on unwilling prisoners during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, noting that "here we are making exceptions" to the first sentence of the Code's first point, which states that "The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential". Katz was involved in renaming the Cornelius P. Rhoads award given for cancer research from the

American Association for Cancer Research The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's oldest and largest professional association related to cancer research. Based in Philadelphia, the AACR focuses on all aspects of cancer research, including Basic research, basic, ...

, in 2002. He determined that although Rhoads' racist and inflammatory letter was reprehensible, Rhoads did not actually murder or inject cancer into anyone, or participate in medical misconduct. Nonetheless, due to Rhoads' racism, which denigrated Puerto Ricans and Italians, the award was renamed.

Writings

Dr. Katz wrote extensively on subjects of medicine, law and their interconnections. His books included ''The Family and the Law'' (1964, with Joseph Goldstein), ''Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry and Law'' (1967, with

Alan Dershowitz Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law, U.S. constitutional and American criminal law, criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law Sc ...

and Joseph Goldstein), ''Experimentation with Human Beings'' (1972), ''Catastrophic Diseases: Who Decides What?'' (1975, with Alexander M. Capron) and '' The Silent World of Doctor and Patient'' (1984). He also wrote on the importance of physicians collaborating with patients to obtain informed consent.Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy, vol. 10 Spring 1994. http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3916&context=fss_papers&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fus.yhs4.search.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fhspart%3Dironsource%26hsimp%3Dyhs-fullyhosted_003%26type%3Ddsites0103%26param1%3DyhsBeacon%26param2%3Dcd%253D2XzuyEtN2Y1L1QzutDtDtBtByCzzyEyC0D0D0C0AtDtC0DtDtN0D0Tzu0CyByByEtN1L2XzutBtFtBtFtCyDtFtCyCtAtCtN1L1CzutBtAtDtC1N1R%2526cr%253D1273028144%2526ir%253D2301gc%2526elng%253Den%2526elcl%253Dus%2526a%253Ddsites0103%2526uref%253Dfx10%2526f%253D2%2526cat%253Dweb%2526sid%253Deb4a93821eb59ce42cbf8f32326d2c22%2526cnc%253Dironsource_tb_intl_search%2526stype%253Ddsites0103_ag64_niry%2526sesid%253D%2526abid%253D6%2526abg%253D64%2526ipblock%253D0%2526csr%253D0%2526p%253Dmysearchdial%26p%3Dinformed%2Bconsent%2Bmust%2Bit%2Bremain%2Ba%2Bfairy%2Btale#search=%22informed%20consent%20must%20remain%20fairy%20tale%22

Death

Katz died at age 86 on November 17, 2008, at his home in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

References

External links

Jay Katz Papers (MS 1958).
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Jay 1922 births 2008 deaths People from Zwickau Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Harvard Medical School alumni Physicians from New Haven, Connecticut United States Air Force officers University of Vermont alumni Yale Law School faculty Yale School of Medicine faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine