Have American doctors and other health personnel cooperated in the abuse and torture of suspected terrorists?
After 9/11 one of the most wrenching ethical issues faced by the American government is how to interrogate prisoners and detainees in a way which respects their dignity as human beings. In this, doctors and nurses have an especially sensitive role. In Oath Betrayed : Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror, medical ethicist Steven Miles claims that American health personnel have been complicit in the abuse of prisoners after 9/11. In an exclusive MercatorNet interview, Dr Miles contends that torture is both unethical and unproductive. MercatorNet: Have American doctors and other health personnel really become an integral part of military interrogations since 9/11? It’s hard to believe. How many of them are participating? Miles: The numbers and roles of various health personnel varied. Pathologists with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology delayed public knowledge of homicides by torture. Earlier knowledge of those abuses would have given a signal that something had gone s
