Friday, June 24, 2005

Military doctors aiding and abetting torture

The story hits the mainstream - again. Will it make any impact this time?
Military interrogators at the Guantanamo prison camp may have breached medical privacy and encouraged doctors to violate professional and legal standards, two medical ethics experts said in an influential U.S. medical journal on Thursday.
  Reuters article
Military doctors at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have aided interrogators in conducting and refining coercive interrogations of detainees, including providing advice on how to increase stress levels and exploit fears, according to new, detailed accounts given by former interrogators.
  NY Times article
Not that this is actually new news. Perhaps the British Lancet report wasn't prestigious enough to cause any concern in the U.S. Will the New England Journal of Medicine report fare any differently?

Doctors and Torture - July 2004 (Veterans for Common Sense)

Study outlines doctors', medics' role in Iraq prison abuses - August 2004 (Newsday)

Military doctors allegedly collaborated in prison torture - August 2004 (MSNBC)

Doctors implicated in abuse of Iraqi prisoners - August 2004 (New Scientist)

Doctor's orders -- spill your guts - January 2005 (LA Times)

Military doctors assailed for role in detainee abuse - January 2005 (Baltimore Sun)

ABUSE CRISIS: Allegations: US Army Doctors Participated in Torture - January 2005 (ATSSN)

Of course, just ahead of the report, the military got new guidelines.

Hey, they're not physicians - they're soldiers.

So much for medical ethics, eh?

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