Thursday, August 5, 2010

DOCS & TORTURE - JAMA August, 2010 & more references


READ the report
just in related to earlier items
GO here and also to Physicians for Human Rights GO here and

Since JAMA yesterday - August 4th 2010 - published a report condemning physicians complicity in torture, a number of sites have discussed or passed on this item.

Here's one from SCOTT HORTON "More on the CIA's Torture Doctors" By SCOTT HORTON (Harper's Magazine)Aug 4, 2010 The Justice Department's torture lawyers relied on the CIA's torture doctors...here

A slightly earlier one: “Bad Medicine”: Doctors, Ethics, and Torture | Open Society Jun 15, 2010 Doctors in the United States are taught "First, do no harm." But what ethical and legal standards govern when a medical professional allows torture? GO here

US doctors accused of performing torture experiments - science-in - Jun 8, 2010 ... A human rights report suggests doctors took part in experiments on detainees to refine controversial interrogation techniques. GO here and see archives for June 8, 2010 Look for "US Doctors Accused of Performing Torture Experiments." (Important questions about the role of doctors in helping the CIA subject terrorism suspects to torture.) GO here

Middle East War: U.S. Doctors Approved Torture and Denied Medical ...Jul 6, 2010 ... American doctors in the Middle East routinely approved the torture of captured suspects and denied them critical medications such as insulin ...
here

Observations: Did CIA doctors perform torture research on detainees? Jun 7, 2010 ... Doctors and other health professionals working for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) might have been illegally performing research on ...
www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id...doctors...torture... - Cached
Doctors and torture | Amnesty InternationalMar 1, 2002 ... The paper also aims to help doctors fight torture - by highlighting what they can do to stop torture and how medical associations can help.

Much Earlier (What will we do NOW before we have YEARS more with no end to these crimes on humanity?)

Doctors and Torture — NEJM by RJ Lifton - 2004 - Cited by 87 - Related articles
Jul 29, 2004 ... Perspective from The New England Journal of Medicine — Doctors and Torture. GO here

Amnesty International 1/2002 GO here

Medical torture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo (1975) [1] makes a number of specific statements against torture, including "The doctor shall not ...See here

Here is a letter to the Editor of JAMA:
From Malcolm Potts, MB, BChir, PhD
Family Health International Research Triangle Park, NC

JAMA. 1986;255(20):2760. (first part of letter as abstract)

To the Editor.

Dr John Havard, secretary of the British Medical Association, has drawn attention to the need for national medical associations to support their individual members in combating what seems to be a global epidemic of torture.

The Collegio Medico de Chile has recently had the courage to suspend two doctors for their involvement in torture. The Uruguayan Medical Association has withdrawn from the World Medical Association to protest its apparent lack of leadership in dealing with this appalling problem.

As a physician who lives in America but travels to many countries, I would like to draw attention to the efforts of national medical associations (sometimes made at considerable personal risk to the officers of those associations) to deny doctors involved in torture the collective support of their profession. I hope the American Medical Association will take explicit action to support the Chilean and Uruguayan associations...[Full Text PDF of this Article may be available to doctor members of JAMA or soon some other way):

For more on this issue, keep watching NoMoreCrusades.blogspot.com

GO here for item on Collegio Medic de Chile and the physicians document referred to above.

Document on Torture and the AMA (American Medical Association) Why this is listed as merely an Opinion I don't know - GO here

See further development of the recent and older Docs & Torture conflict see ONGOING references added here later...

3 comments:

  1. SEE:
    A Push To Punish Docs Aiding Torture - City Limits Magazine - a bill proposed by the New York State legislature, health professionals engaging in or assisting torture
    GO to www.citylimits.org/news/ and put in a-push-to-punish-docs-aiding-torture

    NOTE CIA Has 3000 Docs on Torture Tapes | SEE War Is A Crime.org for Apr 16, 2009 ... The ACLU criticized the Justice Department for continuing to withhold documents related to the destruction of the torture

    ReplyDelete
  2. Be sure to see the diligent work of Physicians for Human Rights dot org (includes, evidently the work of one at least in latest JAMA report)

    http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/torture/

    Also see ways we might all help...

    http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/340/feb25_1/c973

    ReplyDelete
  3. Related Links:

    A book:
    http://americantorture.com/

    Site for leader among psychologists
    (with many interesting links/posts)

    http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/

    Site for another leader among psychologists
    (also with many compelling posts/links)

    http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/

    ReplyDelete