Physician Participation in Torture  

Oleh:

Singh, Jerome Amir

Jenis: Article from Books - E-Book
Dalam koleksi: The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics, page 350-358.
Topik: Physician Participation; Torture; Ethical; International Human Rights Law; International Humanitarian Law
Fulltext: Physician Participation in Torture.pdf (294.51KB)

Isi artikel

Hours after a bomb kills 23 people in a busy marketplace, state armed forces arrest a suspect. Dr. A, a state physician, is summoned to the city’s detention facilities. When he arrives, he ?nds the suspect unconscious and covered in blood from severe beatings in?icting by the security forces. He is asked to resuscitate the patient for further interrogation. Angered at the bombing, Dr. A complies. Shortly thereafter, in an attempt by detaining authorities to extract information from the detainee, Dr. A is asked to administer sodium pentothal (also known as ‘‘truth serum’’) to the detainee. Before doing so, the suspect dies from his injuries sustained from the beatings. The detaining authorities instruct Dr. A to record the death as a suicide, which he does. Later, Dr. A wonders whether his actions and silence in the matter makes him complicit in the torture and subsequent cover-up of the incident. He is also uncertain whether he is obliged to act in the best interests of his employer (the state), himself, or his patient in such instances. Dr. B, a psychiatrist in a detention center, is informed by one of her patients that he has not been charged or tried for any crime since his detention months earlier. In addition, he is regularly shackled and held in solitary con?nement for prolonged periods, made to stand in awkward positions for hours on end, and deprived of sleep by the detaining authorities. Dr. B is unsure what to do with this information. C, a prison nurse, overhears correctional services of?cials at her prison boast about their interrogation and humiliation of detainees who were recently transferred there as a result of extrajudicial renditions, a practice whereby detainees are deported by countries without going through proper court channels. Their accounts include, amongst others, stripping detainees naked and photographing them, and scaring them with prison dogs while they are blindfolded. C, who has not personally witnessed any of these acts, nor knowingly treated such patients, confronts her colleagues, who inform her that such detainees have no recognition or protection under international law. C is unsure of her moral and legal duties towards the detainees.

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