Pipol Power

In an article in this week's issue of The Lancet bioethicist Steven H. Miles condemns the complicity of U.S. military medical personnel in torture of prisoners and other human rights violations. Citing military documents, eyewitness accounts and news reports, Miles says medical personnel were involved in a range of violations including falsification of death certificates, tampering with Iraqi corpses and in one instance, reviving a man brutalized into unconsciousness so that soldiers could resume a torture regime.

Last month, the New England Journal of Medicine, another medical journal, already carried an article citing evidence that U.S. doctors, nurses, and medics have been complicit in torture and other illegal procedures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

Both reports call for a wider investigation in the topic.

The Lancet's lead editorial argues that human rights have become a casualty in the desperate attempt to get results in the war against terrorism. The prestigious journal concludes:

Health-care workers should now break their silence. Those who were involved in or witnessed ill-treatment need to give a full and accurate account of events at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Those who are still in positions where dual commitments prevent them from putting the rights of their patients above other interests, should protest loudly and refuse cooperation with authorities. The wider non-military medical community should unite in support of their colleagues and condemn torture and inhumane and degrading practices against detainees.