In our opinion many of the princples of responsible medical practice were abandoned during the Covid pandemic of 2020- 2022, despite having been codified in multiple binding international documents and conventions since the Nuremberg Code of 1948.

In particular, we hold that:

• scientific standards were ignored in order to be able to introduce and enforce mandates of dubious utility without objective evaluation, mandates which have caused physical, psychological and financial harm for many millions.
• research governance and drug licensing requirements were ignored in order to market potentially harmful experimental substances, in particular the mRNA Covid ‘vaccines’,  without adequate testing of safety and efficacy. Entire populations were coerced to accept medical interventions without being aware of the irregular nature of drug licensing in these cases, and without proper informed consent 
• legally required postmarket surveillance for the identification of adverse effects was omitted or actively hindered. As a result of such widespread systems failure, millions of individuals worldwide, most at low risk from Covid infection, have suffered substantial harm.
• non-immunised individuals were discriminated against by medical service providers and health bureaucrats, or actively excluded from essential medical care. Others were prevented from visiting dying relatives.
• physicians, scientists, journalists and patients who protested against these developments were ostracised, bullied and threatened with official sanctions, up to and including the loss of their livelihood. Public trust in independent medical practice, under obligation and accountable to the individual patient, has been severely compromised.

We, the undersigned physicians, psychotherapists and dentists, hereby emphatically reject and distance ourselves from this abrogation of tried and tested medical, scientific and ethical standards and from the resulting damage to a civilised societal discourse.

We declare that:

• we will treat all patients with equal respect, regardless of skin colour, religion or immunisation status and regardless of any other personal traits or lifestyle choices.
• any final decision on medical treatment has to rest with the patient. We will respect such a decision even if we personally feel that the patient has chosen an inferior therapeutic option.
• we reject any and all governmental, religious, party political or other non- medical interference with patient treatment, especially if designed to further external financial or ideological interests.
• every human being has the unalienable right to bodily autonomy and must not be threatened or coerced if he/ she asserts this right.
• no physician must be threatened in any shape or form if, in the context of the provision of medical services or professional political activities, he/ she follows his/her own conscience.
• we support the open, professional expression of competing ideas in Medicine and Science and reject the suppression of dissident opinion, dogmatism and the imposition of financial or ideological interests, together with any and all forms of discrimination.

 
The dignity of the individual human being must remain the supreme guiding principle of medical practice, especially in times of crisis.

Heidelberg, 1st October 2022