NYT: Reports Criticize Medics for Overlooking Abuses ("war crimes")

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MEDICAL ETHICS
Reports Criticize Medics for Overlooking Abuses
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: August 27, 2004


The failures of Army medical staff members to prevent and report torture, as detailed in reports about abuses at Abu Ghraib prison this week, shows the need for more investigation and better training, medical ethicists and the Army itself said yesterday.

Punishment was recommended for two medics in a report released on Wednesday by Maj. Gen. George R. Fay and Lt. Gen. Anthony R. Jones. The report also described acts by unknown doctors and medics, who presumably would be punished if they were ever identified.

Under international law, said Dr. Vincent Iacopino, research director for Physicians for Human Rights, the failures by members of the military to report torture "are war crimes, so anyone responsible should be held accountable."

Although all soldiers have a duty to report war crimes, many physicians feel that doctors, nurses and medics have a higher obligation to do so, and they are bothered by the dual loyalties created by war: a doctor may feel torn between loyalty to comrades and the duty to treat and protect patients, even those from the enemy side....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/politics/27medic.html

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