While normally eponyms used in medicine serve to honor the memory of the physician or researcher who first documented a disease or pioneered a procedure, the propriety of such names resulting from unethical research practices is controversial.
In some cases terms closely related to doctors in the Nazi era have fallen out of favor or there are active lobbying efforts to remove the original name from use.
[1] Since 2007, the Israel Medical Association Journal[2] and European Neurology[3] have each published articles cataloging eponyms honoring Nazis and their collaborators.
Some physicians have used the Nazi associations as an argument to discontinue the use of eponyms in medical naming conventions altogether,[4] while others have argued that such Nazi-associated eponyms should be retained as "a means of conveying immortal dishonor.
"[5] Both the Israel Medical Association Journal and European Neurology articles advocated that eponyms honoring victims of the Nazis be retained, while eponyms honoring Nazi collaborators or benefactors be replaced.