Hippocratic oath a casualty of war

Hippocratic oath a casualty of war
August 23, 2004
"Prisoners are patients too, but in Iraq that principle was ignored by some doctors, writes Michael Cook.

Why didn't the doctors at Abu Ghraib prison protect their patients? It is becoming clear that it was not just trailer trash who were corrupted by their power over Iraqi detainees in the prison. That power also poisoned the people who should be the bulwark of humanitarianism: the medical staff.

This is the message of the latest issue of The Lancet, one of the world's leading medical journals. Based on a detailed report by an American doctor, it has called upon health care workers to break their silence about these shameful events.

The Lancet's report documents many cases of abuse involving medical personnel. One high profile case involved an unnamed surgeon. Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush, an Iraqi air defence commander, was a "high-priority target" but turned himself in for questioning in November last year. Two weeks later, US soldiers slid a sleeping bag over his body except for his feet. An interrogator sat on his chest and placed his hands over the general's mouth. "


http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/22/1093113050892.html?from=storylhs

nt

I used to wonder how on earth people let the Nazi's torture and murder millions of jews, gypsies, trade unionists, socialists etc (precocious kiddie I guess) but the older I've got the more I think "I amazed it hasn't happened more often". The ease with which we seem able as a society, to relegate entire nations or ethnicities of people into the "other" category, and therefore render them less worthy or deserving of respect and decency is truly scary.

Doctors are no more likely to stand up against broad scale dehumanisation than "trailer trash" soldiers from rural Virginia backwaters.