Medical Ethics and the Interrogation of Guantanamo 063

Here's a new angle on the US's torture of prisoners in the American Journal of Bioethics Medical Ethics and the Interrogation of Guantanamo 063 : "The declassified Army investigation and the corresponding interrogation log show clinical supervision, monitoring and treatment during an interrogation that employed dogs, prolonged sleep deprivation, humiliation, restraint, hypothermia and compulsory intravenous infusions. The interrogation and the involvement of a psychologist, physician and medics violate international and medical norms for the treatment of prisoners."

"The physician in the interrogation cell who ordered parenteral fluids over the prisoner’s objection did not simply treat a dehydrated patient, he or she prolonged a harsh interrogation. The psychologist who oversaw the use of dogs, sleep deprivation and culturally-targeted humiliation was using clinical insights and the tools of behavioral science to break a prisoner down rather than to establish rapport for cross cultural negotiation. Al-Qahtani had no treating psychologist. This problem is not resolved by simplistically invoking ‘dual loyalty ethics.’ In this situation, dual loyalty ethics, like international law, obliges the clinicians who work in environments pressuring them to do otherwise to hold the wellbeing of their imprisoned patients as their primary obligation "

"The diverse clinical societies’ ethics codes should be harmonized and unequivocally grounded on the standards in international laws like the Geneva Convention. In this way, the United States medical community would express its accountability to international law and be able to call upon foreign governments and medical communities to do likewise."

I also learned a new (French) phrase, "hors de combat" used in the Geneva Conventions. It means "out of action due to injury or combat" according to my mac's builtin dictionary.