Pax-salon Mailing List: Conversational Salon

[Patty Guerrero (pattypax]

This can also be part of our discussion tomorrow since in the article it states 
"The American Public has a right to know....."

Patty

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Gary King <g5king [at] msn.com>
> Date: November 4, 2013 12:15:57 PM CST
> To: "Gary King g5k" <g5king [at] msn.com>
> Subject: torture taskforce
> 
>  
> UK Guardian
>  
>  
> CIA made doctors torture suspected terrorists after 9/11, taskforce finds
> Doctors were asked to torture detainees for intelligence gathering, and 
> unethical practices continue, review concludes
> ·        Share1644
> ·         
> ·        Sarah Boseley, health editor
> ·        The Guardian, Sunday 3 November 2013
> ·        Jump to comments (795)
> 
> An al-Qaida detainee at Guantanamo Bay in 2002: the DoD has taken steps to 
> address concerns over practices at the prison in recent years. Photograph: 
> Shane T Mccoy/PA
> Doctors and psychologists working for the US military violated the ethical 
> codes of their profession under instruction from the defence department and 
> the CIA to become involved in the torture and degrading treatment of 
> suspected terrorists, an investigation has concluded.
> The report of the Taskforce on Preserving Medical Professionalism in National 
> Security Detention Centres concludes that after 9/11, health professionals 
> working with the military and intelligence services "designed and 
> participated in cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and torture of 
> detainees".
> 
> Medical professionals were in effect told that their ethical mantra "first do 
> no harm" did not apply, because they were not treating people who were ill.
> 
> The report lays blame primarily on the defence department (DoD) and the CIA, 
> which required their healthcare staff to put aside any scruples in the 
> interests of intelligence gathering and security practices that caused severe 
> harm to detainees, from waterboarding to sleep deprivation and force-feeding.
> 
> The two-year review by the 19-member taskforce, Ethics Abandoned: Medical 
> Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror, supported by the 
> Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) and the Open Society 
> Foundations, says that the DoD termed those involved in interrogation "safety 
> officers" rather than doctors. Doctors and nurses were required to 
> participate in the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike, against the 
> rules of the World Medical Association and the American Medical Association. 
> Doctors and psychologists working for the DoD were required to breach patient 
> confidentiality and share what they knew of the prisoner's physical and 
> psychological condition with interrogators and were used as interrogators 
> themselves. They also failed to comply with recommendations from the army 
> surgeon general on reporting abuse of detainees.
> The CIA's office of medical services played a critical role in advising the 
> justice department that "enhanced interrogation" methods, such as extended 
> sleep deprivation and waterboarding, which are recognised as forms of 
> torture, were medically acceptable. CIA medical personnel were present when 
> waterboarding was taking place, the taskforce says.
> 
> Although the DoD has taken steps to address concerns over practices at 
> Guantánamo Bay in recent years, and the CIA has said it no longer has 
> suspects in detention, the taskforce says that these "changed roles for 
> health professionals and anaemic ethical standards" remain.
> 
> "The American public has a right to know that the covenant with its 
> physicians to follow professional ethical expectations is firm regardless of 
> where they serve," said Dr Gerald Thomson, professor of medicine emeritus at 
> Columbia University and member of the taskforce.
> 
> He added: "It's clear that in the name of national security the military 
> trumped that covenant, and physicians were transformed into agents of the 
> military and performed acts that were contrary to medical ethics and 
> practice. We have a responsibility to make sure this never happens again."The 
> taskforce says that unethical practices by medical personnel, required by the 
> military, continue today. The DoD "continues to follow policies that 
> undermine standards of professional conduct" for interrogation, hunger 
> strikes, and reporting abuse. Protocols have been issued requiring doctors 
> and nurses to participate in the force-feeding of detainees, including forced 
> extensive bodily restraints for up to two hours twice a day.
> 
> Doctors are still required to give interrogators access to medical and 
> psychological information about detainees which they can use to exert 
> pressure on them. Detainees are not permitted to receive treatment for the 
> distress caused by their torture.
> 
> "Putting on a uniform does not and should not abrogate the fundamental 
> principles of medical professionalism," said IMAP president David Rothman. 
> "'Do no harm' and 'put patient interest first' must apply to all physicians 
> regardless of where they practise."The taskforce wants a full investigation 
> into the involvement of the medical profession in detention centres. It is 
> also calling for publication of the Senate intelligence committee's inquiry 
> into CIA practices and wants rules to ensure doctors and psychiatrists 
> working for the military are allowed to abide by the ethical obligations of 
> their profession; they should be prohibited from taking part in 
> interrogation, sharing information from detainees' medical records with 
> interrogators, or participating in force-feeding, and they should be required 
> to report abuse of detainees.
>