A brave surgeon in the German town of Paderborn refused to operate on a patient as he spotted a swastika tattooed on his arm. The strict German privacy laws have prevented reporters from Bild (where the story first appeared) to give out details regarding the people involved or the type of surgery in question.
What is known, however, is that the doctor was set to start a routine operation (perhaps a hernia or appendicitis) when he discovered a Nazi tattoo on the patient's forearm: the appalling Reich's eagle perched on a swastika.
At that point the surgeon asked a colleague to continue and walked out on the operation. Bild reported that the doctor spoke to the patient's wife saying - and credit to him -"I will not operate on your husband, I can't, I'm Jewish and my conscience doesn't allow me".
The other doctor successfully completed the operation, but it's not known whether the patient was planning to sue.
He may want to think twice, however. The doctor (can you blame him?) may have turned his back on the Hippocratic Oath, but in Germany any public display of Nazi symbols is punishable under criminal law.
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