CIA physicians: Heal thyselves

When investigations by the International Committee of the Red Cross uncover war crimes, the reports are supposed to be kept confidential. However, journalist Mark Danner somehow obtained a report based on interviews with 14 detainees who were held in secret overseas prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

The report revealed that medical staff had participated in the abuse of prisoners, in violation of international standards of medical ethics.

An Associated Press article highlights some of the findings:

[T]he health personnel monitored detainees as they were subjected to techniques such as waterboarding -- which simulates drowning -- and prolonged stress positions.

In some cases, the Red Cross reported, medical staff recommended stopping the treatment; in others they "recommended its continuation, but with adjustments."

[...]

One detainee told the Red Cross that while still being held at a secret site, "a health person threatened that medical care would be conditional upon cooperation with the interrogators."

The report said the health personnel's "primary purpose appears to have been to serve the interrogation process, and not the patient."

This reminds me of the controversy surrounding doctors' participation in executions here in the U.S. -- a practice that is opposed by the AMA and the Society of Correctional Physicians.

I like to think that most doctors choose their profession because they want to help people (in addition to making a very good living). With the Hippocratic Oath, they swear to "prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone."

Why then would a doctor agree to participate in abuse? Only a criminal mind could justify it. And indeed they are criminals.

>> Download the Red Cross report (PDF)