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Richard Haut
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Joined: 18 Apr 2004
Posts: 1165
Location: Nice, France
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 Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:34 pm Post subject: American professional ethics: the AMA speaks out |
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Well done to the American Medical Association. They have announced a new ethical code that removes any "ambiguity" as they call it for physicians on the subject of involvement in torture.
| Quote: | Doctors forbid roles in harsh interrogations
Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:49 AM BST171
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By Andrew Stern
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The American Medical Association on Monday voted to refine its ethical guidelines that forbid doctors from participating in torture or "coercive" interrogations of prisoners.
The action was prompted by unconfirmed allegations that physicians or psychiatrists played roles in harsh interrogations conducted at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The 544-member house of delegates, which sets policy for the leading U.S. physicians group, voted at its annual meeting to approve a seven-page report that outlined a physician's duty "as healer" not to take any part in interrogating prisoners.
Other stipulations called for doctors to provide medical care to detainees as they would to any patient -- in strict confidence.
Similarly, doctors are not ethically permitted to participate in executions, or to heal an inmate to make him well enough to be put to death, the AMA said.
"Physicians must not conduct, directly participate in, or monitor an interrogation with an intent to intervene, because this undermines the physician's role as healer," one of the report's recommendations said.
"The development of this new ethical policy removes ambiguity for physicians who must make decisions about their involvement in interrogations," the report said. "This policy builds on previous AMA efforts to assist physicians in the military who encounter such issues."
"We have to promote compassion, not coercion, wherever we find it," said Dr. Priscilla Ray, chairman of the AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, which wrote the report. Continued...
Critics of U.S. policy toward prisoners captured in the U.S.-declared war on terror have alleged psychiatrists have helped devise or guide interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation to pry information out of detainees.
Other terrorism suspects have been reported to have been captured and sent for interrogation in "extraordinary renditions" in which they are transferred from country to country outside usual extradition procedures.
The AMA's Ray said she visited the facility at Guantanamo twice and commanders assured her coercive techniques were no longer used. She said physicians or psychiatrists may have participated in harsh interrogations previously, but did not now do so and were allowed to excuse themselves when detainees were questioned.
Ray said interrogation strategies now used focused on building rapport with prisoners, which she described as more effective.
The AMA policy does permit physicians to help develop noncoercive interrogation strategies, the report said.
Ray said the aim of the AMA's report was to avoid the politics of the issue and stick to ethical guidelines.
The recent suicides of three detainees at the facility have heightened calls to close it.
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Richard Haut has worked with the architectural profession for over 25 years and produces the weekly Richard Haut's Competitions, which has given architects details of many thousands of projects for which they can apply across Britain and Europe. |
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Ed Ziomek
Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 561
Location: Stamford, Connecticut
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| Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:15 am Post subject: This AMA document ENDORSES TORTURE! |
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Rich...I absolutely know your intentions, and understand your congratulating the AMA on this document... but isnt' it more of a "FREE PASS", to the torurers? Isn't it opening the door for torturers to continue whatever they are doing, just make sure the physician covers his assets?
Where does it demand that military physicians REPORT THE ABUSES? Nowhere!!! It clearly implies...REPORTING TORTURE IS NOT YOUR JOB!
Listen to the words...
"Physicians must not conduct, directly participate in, or monitor an interrogation with an intent to intervene, because this undermines the physician's role as healer," ....
Subliminal... "Walk away...make it 'none of your business'...they have their torture jobs to do, you have your healing job to do, stay out of their way..."
"We have to promote compassion, not coercion, wherever we find it," ....
Subliminal...
"Don't go looking for it, don't find it, and take no action against it if you do!"
"The AMA's Ray said she visited the facility at Guantanamo twice ...She said physicians or psychiatrists may have participated in harsh interrogations previously, but did not now do so and were allowed to excuse themselves when detainees were questioned. "
Subliminal...
"Nothing has changed, deny everything, walk away, allow what happens to happen, they have their job to do, you have your job to do."
Rich...This diabolical, clever AMA document is a CYA document... It legalizes physicians presence in the vicinity of torture, and allows physicians to legally ignore anything they encounter...so long as they walk away and ignore it.
This document MAKES ME SICK!!! What difference are we from the Mengele's of the world?
What differences are we from the Saddam Hussein's of the world, or the Hezbollahs?
This is where we lost the peace in this region. We have turned the finest, most honorable fighting force in the world (in my opinion) into free-fire zone bombers in civilian neighborhoods, in too many cases against innocent civilians! We are the sanctioned torturers. How devastating this must be on our young fighting forces! How rotten we must look to the rest of the world.
This document is sooooo un-American, in my book.
Then these same young men/women come home and try to readjust back?
Please advise me where I misread this horrific document?
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Ed Ziomek |
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Richard Haut
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Joined: 18 Apr 2004
Posts: 1165
Location: Nice, France
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| Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:19 am Post subject: |
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Yes, it is a strange document - but what I understood them to be saying was simple: if an American physician misuses their medical training and status in this manner, then they are no longer an American physician. No discussion - finished.
It does not go beyond that because it is a statement for physicians by physicians.
It is in that sense a document which is internal to their profession - it does not get involved in the question of others becoming involved in torture because they do not have the authority to do so within this type of document.
No, I do not think that you did misread the document. It is very limited - but within its own remit it is correct.
If they had produced the type of document that you or I might prefer to see then the document itself would have become submerged in a battle of its own.
Interestingly the RIBA in London - through the President and with others - did issue a protest against the idea of attacking Iraq.
It was a clear and decent statement, but it was not, and did not pretend to be a new ethical code: it was a protest.
Nothing to do with being American or un-American.
To be silent in the face of known illegality and barbarity is to be complicit.
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Richard Haut has worked with the architectural profession for over 25 years and produces the weekly Richard Haut's Competitions, which has given architects details of many thousands of projects for which they can apply across Britain and Europe. |
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