Whether or not U. S. Army doctors contributed to abusive interrogations at military detention centers is the subject of recent Washington Post reporting by Joe Stephens. Regarding an article in the New England Journal of Medicine:
The article says that David N. Tornberg, deputy assistant secretary of defense for clinical and program policy, confirmed in an interview that interrogation units at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay had access to detainee medical records. In fact, interrogators "couldn't conduct their job" without such access, Tornberg is quoted as saying.
He and other military officials argue in the article that when a doctor participates in interrogation, he is acting as a combatant, so the Hippocratic oath does not apply.
Tornberg is on leave and was unavailable to comment yesterday. Winkenwerder said that he believes Tornberg's comments were misrepresented in the article, and that they did not represent the Defense Department's views.
My father took the Hippocratic oath and upheld it during his Army service to our country in World War II, and since then there is international law to contend with. Luckily, my father was not castigated for saving lives.
I would hope, if the facts ever should be sorted out and not swept under the rug regarding any medical personnel involvement in U. S. military prison tortures, that international law would be upheld. Of course, the likelihood of that happening is anybodyâ??s guess.
