Doctors helped in prison abuse: study

[floda]

Associated Press
LONDON, Aug. 19. — Doctors working for the US military in Iraq collaborated with interrogators in the abuse of detainees at Baghdad’s Abu Gharib prison, profoundly breaching medical ethics and human rights, according to a new analysis.

In a scathing indictment of the behaviour of military doctors, nurses and other medics, US bioethicist Dr Steven Miles called for a reform of military medicine and an official investigation into the role played by physicians in the torture scandal.

The article was published in The Lancet, a medical journal. The US Army was reviewing the article today, but gave no immediate response.
Photographs of prisoners being abused and humiliated by US troops in Iraq have sparked worldwide condemnation. Although the conduct of soldiers has been scrutinized, the role of medical staff in the scandal has received relatively little attention.

snip

He cites evidence that doctors falsified death certificates to cover up murders, hid evidence of beatings and revived a prisoner so he could be further tortured. No reports of abuses were initiated by medical personnel until the official investigation into Abu Gharib began, he found.

more...

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=8&theme=&usrsess=1&id=51676

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Interesting,

since NPR reports that the Abu Ghraib official report will be released in a couple of days, and doesnt seem to name anyone new as part of the conspiracy...

[Shakespeare]

2. Paging Dr. Mengele....

God, how far our country has fallen. :cry:

[REVOLT823]

15. No kidding,

this is despicable

[happynewyear]

3. why am I not surprised?

Hell, given the treatment I've received IN THIS COUNTRY RIGHT HERE - THE GOOD OLD USA recently falls just short of this.

A good point - what the HELL have we become?

Just proves my other paranoid belief: Doctors are a bunch of corrupt shills working for the pharmaceutical industry! Where's my check they query? They could give a damn! :grr:

Note: Next they'll be prying the gold out of people's teeth. Wanted: DEAD or ALIVE!

[gratuitous]

4. Probably just another bunch of bad apples

No sense tossing the whole barrel, you know.

Oh yes, all the doctors acted wholly independently and without orders or instructions of any kind. It is the stated policy of the United States military that all medical personnel should fully report all instances of real or suspected abuse of prisoners.

Yes. That's our policy.

Right-o. Policy: drafted, printed, and all personnel duly instructed.

{Wink}

[Bluebear]

5. What in the hell have we become???

nt

[GreenArrow]

6. ve haff vays of making you talk

.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Very small article, but what else DOES it need to say not included

in it already? This is really ugly. Which one of us every dreamed as children we'd be learning this kind of thing would happen at the hands of people working on behalf of our pResident's administration? From the article:

Dr Miles, from the University of Minnesota, gathered evidence from US congressional hearings, sworn statements of detainees and soldiers, medical journal accounts and press reports to build a picture of physician complicity, and in some cases, active participation, in abuse at the Baghdad prison, as well as in Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.

Thanks, floda. We heard it first from you, I believe. We need to know ALL about it, as soon as possible. Is there ANYONE in Washington ready to clean this up, and let us know this will NEVER happen again, or are we to assume we've all been bumpkins to assume this could never happen?

[aquart]

8. Yeah, the doctors are guilty but the brass are innocent.

[NNN0LHI]

9. Is it safe? n/t

[tlcandie]

10. Remember the two Europeans who were released and stated

that they were given medical injections/treatments against their will?

All, I can say is that not only the Iraqis, but every person who has anything to do with the US, including its own citizens, had better beware.

I think somewhere along the way the military or this regime or someone has switched on some kind of light that caused our soldiers to become void of all conscious.

Sorry to sound paranoid, but this is just horriblly tragic and I can't believe that normal people would do this without something pushing them to do it? Could it possibly be the vaccines and/or meds that they are required to take by the military? I mean there is no way that anyone, but a few select know exactly what is in all of that stuff?

I guess I'm just looking for something because this is just so horribly tragic! Even though it isn't as bad as the Nazis, it damned sure gives this US citizen a glance, far beyond depressing, into how it feels to have their countrymen experiment, torture, abuse, maime, and kill others all in the name of peace and freedom!

Excuse me while I go :puke:

[Raven]

11. "Do no harm"...go figure!

I know a Doc involved with "Doctors without Boarders"...not a better person in this world.This story is an indication of the sickness we as a nation are facing...rot from the top.

[gottaB]

12. Cf "Doctors and Torture," NEJM

DU thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=65932

[demoman123]

13. "....revived a prisoner so he could be further tortured..."

Nature does you a favor and knocks you out, and these swine revive you.

[Bluebear]

14. This regime will live in history alright. nt

[Disturbed]

16. Studies have shown..

that many people will go along with torturing others given the environment and the green light from those in charge.

[demigoddess]

18. that is why it is outlawed, people cannot

always rely on their own judgment. but it is really disgusting to see people fall in line because of peer pressure.:puke:

[Xipe Totec]

17. This Post Needs to Be Kicked

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military doctors working in Iraq collaborated with interrogators in the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, an article in the British medical journal The Lancet said on Friday

A U.S. military spokesman said the article was inaccurate, and a spokesman for an American physicians group said that if the accusations are true, the doctors and other medical personnel should stand trial.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3...




PS: This issue dropped off the radar, a new thread was started, but it was locked as a dupe.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=765433&mesg_id=765433&page=

:kick: