Physicians at Guantanamo violate medical ethics: study

By GottaLaff

Unabashedly sounding like a broken record, I will remind you to pick up a copy of Jane Mayer's The Dark Side. She goes into some detail about the role of medical professionals at Gitmo. It's disturbing, to say the least.

The use of physicians at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay has forced medical professionals to violate their ethics codes, according to findings published Thursday in the UK journal Lancet.

The roles that medical professionals have been called on to play at the controversial detention facility "has damaged the integrity of the physicians working for the military and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)," the study said.

"These physicians had a conflict of loyalty because of their ethical obligations to their imprisoned patients and the Bush administration's demands to further the goals and interests of military commanders and intelligence officials."

The paper was authored by Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, and George Annas, a professor at Boston University and an expert on bioethics.

Basing their arguments on a Pentagon report on procedures at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the authors argue military directives allowing force-feeding of detainees and the use of behavioral scientists in interrogations has led medical professionals at the facility to violate ethics rules. [...]

The paper says "little comfort" can be derived from the Pentagon's insistence that behavioral scientists at Guantanamo comply with "governing policies and procedures."

How ironic, using the word "comfort" in any context relating to Gitmo. How appalling that "governing policies and procedures" like these were literally dictated by BushCo. Again, read the book.

"As with force-feeding, the policies are flawed because they invite and even require unethical behavior."

The authors recommend the Pentagon abandon the use of force-feeding and the involvement of behavioral scientists in interrogations. They also call for "independent medical reviews" of the physical and mental health of detainees and a commission inquiry into US detention policy and the role of physicians.

How many demands for investigations will there be? What are we up to now, 3, 12, 15, 40? It doesn't really matter. What does matter is that so many reports like this are being released. And with each report, more attention is paid to the horrific stories about detainees like Fayiz al-Kandari. Now let's do something. Take action, ease your conscience.

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.