On Army Doctors Supervising Torture...

[RBHam]

From The Hippocratic Oath, sworn by all doctors, updated by Louis Lasagna in 1964:

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

From Salon.com, written by Suzanne Goldenberg:

Doctors at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib used their medical knowledge to help devise coercive interrogation methods for detainees, including sleep deprivation, stress positions and other abuse, it was reported Thursday. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine provides the most authoritative account so far that doctors were active participants in the abuse of prisoners in America's "war on terror."

The NEJM article accuses doctors of violating professional ethics by passing detainee health records to military intelligence and by watching interrogation sessions. It also describes collaboration with interrogators in which doctors and medics helped set the parameters for abuse, determining 72-hour "sleep management" schedules for detainees, approving bread and water regimens for those subjected to "dietary manipulation," and sanctioning long periods of isolation. (see article at http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/07/docs_and_torture/)

From New England Journal of Medicine, written by Dr. M. Gregg Bloche, M.D., J.D., and Jonathan H. Marks, M.A., B.C.L.:

“These professionals are bound by international law to treat wounded combatants from all sides and to care for injured civilians. They are also required to care for enemy prisoners and to report any evidence of abuse of detainees. In exchange, the Geneva Conventions protect them from direct attack, so long as they themselves do not become combatants. Recently, there have been accounts of failure by U.S. medical personnel to report evidence of detainee abuse, even murder.” (see article at http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/352/1/3)

From “The Nazi Doctors and Nuremberg: Some Moral Lessons Revisited” by Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD, August 15th, 1997:


“The Nazi doctors were rational beings. To be sure, they acted within psychological and sociohistorical context. Ultimately, they justified their actions by what they considered to be moral reasons that have received insufficient attention. During the testimony, the defendants and their lawyers repeatedly advanced a few moral premises with a familiar ring: They were not killing by their own authority but obeying the laws of the state, which can determine the method of death. To resist would have been treasonous; ethics must be subordinate to the demands of war. The death of a few prisoners would save many German lives; medical ethics could be set aside by law.” (see article at http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/127/4/307#FN)



Remember, this is the administration re-elected for “moral values.”

http://toolz.blogs.com/toolz_of_the_new_school/2005/01/on_army_doctors.html

[nolabels]

1. It is rather sad they are trying to pick up where the Nazi's left off

But it's also a clue on how small minded they are