Doctors and Torture....The New England Journal of Medicine

[RedEarth]

The New England Journal of Medicine


Doctors and Torture

Robert Jay Lifton, M.D


There is increasing evidence that U.S. doctors, nurses, and medics have been complicit in torture and other illegal procedures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Such medical complicity suggests still another disturbing dimension of this broadening scandal.

We know that medical personnel have failed to report to higher authorities wounds that were clearly caused by torture and that they have neglected to take steps to interrupt this torture. In addition, they have turned over prisoners' medical records to interrogators who could use them to exploit the prisoners' weaknesses or vulnerabilities. We have not yet learned the extent of medical involvement in delaying and possibly falsifying the death certificates of prisoners who have been killed by torturers.

A May 22 article on Abu Ghraib in the New York Times states that "much of the evidence of abuse at the prison came from medical documents" and that records and statements "showed doctors and medics reporting to the area of the prison where the abuse occurred several times to stitch wounds, tend to collapsed prisoners or see patients with bruised or reddened genitals."1 According to the article, two doctors who gave a painkiller to a prisoner for a dislocated shoulder and sent him to an outside hospital recognized that the injury was caused by his arms being handcuffed and held over his head for "a long period," but they did not report any suspicions of abuse. A staff sergeant–medic who had seen the prisoner in that position later told investigators that he had instructed a military policeman to free the man but that he did not do so. A nurse, when called to attend to a prisoner who was having a panic attack, saw naked Iraqis in a human pyramid with sandbags over their heads but did not report it until an investigation was held several months later.

A June 10 article in the Washington Post tells of a long-standing policy at the Guantanamo Bay facility whereby military interrogators were given access to the medical records of individual prisoners.2 The policy was maintained despite complaints by the Red Cross that such records "are being used by interrogators to gain information in developing an interrogation plan." A civilian psychiatrist who was part of a medical review team was "disturbed" about not having been told about the practice and said that it would give interrogators "tremendous power" over prisoners.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/5/415

[Sabriel]

1. Aren't they subject to any kind of censure or revocation of licensure?

As a teacher, if I fail to report abuse of any kind, I can be held legally liable. Doesn't the AMA have any rules in place for situations like this? arrrrrgh

[Wapsie B]

I don't know

how many people have to die before a doctor gets his/her license pulled. I just found out yesterday the board of medical revue is about 5 years behind in processing cases.

[yardwork]

2. This is horrible.

This is exactly what the Nazis did.

This is a sign that our culture is sick, imo. Americans need to take a close, long look at our society, compare it to the Constitution, and figure out how to get back on track.

I have an opinion about why this is happening. I think it is a result of education in this country. I think that we are teaching kids too much "eye for an eye" type logic, and too little about the values and knowledge on which this country was founded. There is too little teaching about the Constitution, rational thinking, science, and real values.

The hard-right fundamentalist movement in this country is trying to make this country into a Taliban-type theocracy, and they are succeeding in many ways.

[yardwork]

3. I'm nominating this for Front Page

This is too important to ignore.

[soothsayer]

6. Well, the Nazi docs were a bit worse, but we're on the way

They would actually help show the nazis the best, most efficient ways to kill multiple people at a time---you know, if you line them up like SO, and shoot them HERE, you can kill 2 or 3 with a single bullet (there was an ammo shortage, you might recall). They advised as to how best to torture people, too, without killing them, if I'm not mistaken.

So....we may have some that were complicit in constructing these torture techniques, but we likely imported them from other countries (or from our own school of the americas, where the cia taught torture). Hell, maybe it all came from the nazi doctors and scientists the CIA imported to the US after the war under the very secret "project paperclip."


On edit, tho, as soldiers, these docs and nurses are reprehensible in their complicity to this. Maybe they even did something illegal by remaining silent.

[ret5hd]

4. reminds me of that BASF commercial...

Doctors...we don't do the torture...we make the torture better.

bastards...just short of mengele.

[ixion]

5. gee, no violation of hippocratic oath there, eh?

Any medical personnel that has tortured, or been involved in torturing, should be dismissed at the very least, if not brought up on war crimes charges.

[gottaB]

7. Meanwhile, the AMA has labeled Gitmo a medical malpractice crisis

and stepped up efforts to limit non-economic damages in liability cases involving torture and other crimes against humanity.

Dr. Joe Lemenge, spokesperson for the lobbying group Physicians for Fast Cars, War Crimes and Zero Responsibility, said "Look. Our members don't read the New England Journal of Medicine anyway, so quit bugging me for a statement. We'll send you a packet when we're ready to launch our television ad campaigns in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Michigan. That's how these things are done."