Doctors
were asked to torture detainees for intelligence gathering, and unethical
practices continue, review concludes
The Guardian, Sarah Boseley, health editor, Monday 4 November 2013
 |
| CIA made doctors torture suspected terrorists after 9/11, taskforce finds |
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.
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