Scholars have mostly analyzed information from mental health practitioners, attorneys, and institutions to critique mental health practices in the War on Terror. These sources offer limited insights into the suffering of detainees. Detainee accounts provide novel information based on their experiences at Guantánamo. Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary is the only text from a current detainee that provides a first-person account of his interrogations and interactions with health professionals. Despite being advertised as a diary, however, it has undergone redaction from (...) American government officials. This article examines Slahi’s account of his interrogations and representations of mental health at Guantánamo and considers its role within the narrative function of the nation. At stake is the right of detainees to narrate, scholars to critique medical practices in the War on Terror, and the nation’s attempts to control its narration. (shrink)

Military doctors and nurses, employees with a compound professional identity as they are neither purely soldiers nor simply doctors or nurses, face a role conflict between the clinical professional duties to a patient and obligations, express or implied, real or perceived, to the interests of a third party such as an employer, an insurer, the state, or in this context, military command (London et al. 2006). In the context of military medical ethics this is commonly called dual loyalty (or, less (...) commonly, mixed agency). Although other professionals in the military, for instance counsellors or lawyers, might experience similar problems of dual loyalties, it seems that the dual loyalties experienced by military medical personnel are particularly testing. (shrink)

This commentary examines the incursion on the neutrality of medical personnel now taking place as part of the human rights crises in Bahrain and Syria, and the ethical dilemmas which these incursions place not only in front of physicians practicing in those nations, but in front of the international community as a whole.In Bahrain, physicians have recently received harsh prison terms, apparently for treating demonstrators who clashed with government forces. In Syria, physicians are under the same political pressure to avoid (...) treating political demonstrators or to act as informants against their own patients, turning them in to government authorities. This pressure has been severe, to the point that some physicians have become complicit in the abuse of patients who were also political demonstrators.This paper posits that physicians in certain countries in the Middle East during the “Arab Spring,” specifically Syria and Bahrain, are being used as both political pawns and political weapons in clear violation of Geneva Convention and World Medical Association guidelines, and that this puts them into the most extreme sort of “dual loyalty” dilemma. They are being forced to choose between their own safety and well-being and that of their patients – a negative sum scenario wherein there is no optimal choice. As such, an international call for a United Nations inquiry must be made in order to protect the neutrality of medical care and personnel during times of armed conflict. (shrink)

Health professionals around the world have played an integral role in state-sponsored torture during numerous historical episodes, at times providing “expertise and a veneer of legitimacy to a process that involved violations of basic human rights.” These incidents demonstrate why legal and ethical standards among health professionals should be upheld, no matter the context. For example, health professionals during the Third Reich in Germany notoriously worked with the Nazi government to perform painful medical experiments on individuals without their consent and (...) to supervise systematic killings. During the dictatorships in Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay and during apartheid in South Africa, medical professionals also participated in torture. In recent years, government documents, news reports, articles, books, and testimonies by detainees and health professionals have exposed the involvement of health professionals in the abuse and torture of detained individuals at U.S. detention facilities around the world. (shrink)

Health professionals around the world have played an integral role in state-sponsored torture during numerous historical episodes, at times providing “expertise and a veneer of legitimacy to a process that involved violations of basic human rights.” These incidents demonstrate why legal and ethical standards among health professionals should be upheld, no matter the context. For example, health professionals during the Third Reich in Germany notoriously worked with the Nazi government to perform painful medical experiments on individuals without their consent and (...) to supervise systematic killings. During the dictatorships in Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay and during apartheid in South Africa, medical professionals also participated in torture. In recent years, government documents, news reports, articles, books, and testimonies by detainees and health professionals have exposed the involvement of health professionals in the abuse and torture of detained individuals at U.S. detention facilities around the world. (shrink)

Evidence proves that physician involvement in torture is widely practiced in society. Despite its status as an illegal act as established by multiple international organizations, mandates are routinely unheeded and feebly enforced. Philosophies condemning and condoning torture are examined as well as physicians’ professional responsibilities and the manner in which such varying allegiances can be persuasive. Physician involvement in torture has proven detrimental to the core values of medicine and has tainted the field’s commitment to individuals’ health and well-being. Only (...) when this complex issue is addressed using a multilevel approach will the moral rehabilitation of medicine begin. (shrink)

Health care is provided in many contexts—not just hospitals, clinics, and community health settings. Different institutional settings may significantly influence the design and delivery of health care and the ethical obligations and practices of health care practitioners working within them. This is particularly true in institutions that are established to constrain freedom, ensure security and authority, and restrict movement and choice. We describe the results of a qualitative study of the experiences of doctors and nurses working within two women’s prisons (...) in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Their accounts make clear how the provision and ethics of health care may be compromised by the physical design of the prison, the institutional policies and practices restricting movement of prisoners and practitioners, the focus on maintaining control and security, and the very purpose of the prison and prison system itself. The results of this study make clear the impact that context has on professional practice and illustrate the importance of sociology and anthropology to bioethics and to the development of a more nuanced account of professional ethics. (shrink)