Medical torture (also known as a medical interrogation) describes the involvement and sometimes active participation of medical professionals in acts of torture, either to judge what victims can endure, to apply treatments which will enhance torture, or as torturers in their own right. Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental is intentionally Medical torture may involve the use of their expert medical knowledge to facilitate interrogation or corporal punishment, in the conduct of torturous human experimentation or in providing professional medical sanction and approval for the torture of prisoners. Interrogation or questioning is Interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the Police and Military. Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain intended to Punish a person or change his/her behavior Human subject research (HSR or human subject use (HSU involves the use of human beings as research subjects The term also covers torturous scientific (or pseudo-scientific) experimentation upon unwilling human subjects.

Contents 1 Medical ethics and international law 2 Asserted instances of medical torture 3 Asserted instances of medical complicity in torture 4 Medical torture in fiction 5 See also 6 Sources

Medical ethics and international law

It is generally accepted that medical torture fundamentally violates medical ethics, which all medical practitioners are expected to adhere to. Medical ethics is primarily a field of Applied ethics, the study of Moral values and judgments as they apply to Medicine.

• The Hippocratic Oath makes explicit statements against deliberate harm not in the patient's best interests. The Hippocratic Oath is an oath traditionally taken by physicians pertaining to the ethical practice of medicine These statements are often translated as "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement" and "to never deliberately do harm to anyone, for anyone else's interest. " (Note: these statements are formulations of the ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. )
• In response to the Nazi human experimentation on prisoners, which were declared at the Nuremberg Trials to be "crimes against humanity", the World Medical Association developed the Declaration of Geneva to supplant the dated Hippocratic Oath. Nazi human experimentation was a series of controversial medical experiments on large numbers of prisoners by the German Nazi regime in its Concentration The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after The World Medical Association (WMA an international organization of Physicians was formally established on September 17, 1947, pursuant to the resolutions This article pertains to the medical profession There is also the Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the 1923 Geneva The Declaration of Geneva requires medical practitioners to state "[I, the medical practitioner] will maintain the utmost respect for human life from its beginning even under threat and I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity".
• The Nuremberg Trials also led to the emergence of the Nuremberg code which explicitly outlines the boundaries of acceptable medical experimentation. The Nuremberg Code is a set of Research ethics principles for Human experimentation set as a result of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials at the end of the
• Additionally in response to the Nazi atrocities, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 outright prohibits the torture of prisoners of war and other protected non-combatants. The Fourth Geneva Convention (or GCIV) relates to the protection of Civilians during times of War " in the hands " of an enemy and under Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
• The World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo (1975) [1] makes a number of specific statements against torture, including "The doctor shall not countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture". The World Medical Association (WMA an international organization of Physicians was formally established on September 17, 1947, pursuant to the resolutions The Declaration of Tokyo was adopted in October 1975 during the 29th General assembly of the World Medical Association, and later editorially updated by the WMA in France May
• Also the UN Convention Against Torture, which applies not only to medical staff, prohibits the use of torture under any circumstance. The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is an international human rights instrument, under the purview of Medic is a general term for a person involved in medicine especially emergency or first-response medicine such as an Emergency Medical Technician, Paramedic, or Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental is intentionally The text explicitely states there is no exception to this treaty under which torture is allowed.
• The UN Principles of Medical Ethics relevant to the Role of Health Personnel, particularly Physicians, in the Protection of Prisoners and Detainees against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN. 1982) applies specifically to medical and other health workers but it has no implementation mechanism to ensure enforcement. It is up to state, provincial, and national bodies to enforce the standards in the document.
• The development of command responsibility established criminal liability for all people, including physicians, involved in crimes against humanity. Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of In Public international law, a crime against humanity is an act of Persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people and is the highest level of

There remains gaps in regulation relating to medical torture in many countries:

1) Government sponsored torture and organized violence, with the complicity and or participation of health personnel, is internationally prohibited yet these violations occur with impunity in a significant amount of cases. An example of this impunity is found in the Abu Ghraib prison torture and prisoner scandal as well as documented by Amnesty International. The city of Abu Ghraib ( Arabic: أبو غريب Abū Ghurayb Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a Western based international Non-governmental organization which defines its mission as "to

2) A higher standard of behaviour is expected of health professionals yet the UN Principles of Medical Ethics are not enforceable when governments are complicit in violations. This higher standard is reflected in the principles of beneficence, non-maleficence (above all do no harm), autonomy, justice, dignity and informed consent and these aren’t covered comprehensively by the UN Convention Against Torture.

To fill in the gap in regulation the Victoria Coalition for the Survivors of Torture (VCST) in Canada has proposed that an International Health Professions’ Ethics Committee be established to enforce the UN Principles of Medical Ethics. A draft of the Ethics Committee has been posted on the VCST web-site: http://vcst.ca/proposal.htm

The concept is aimed at the World Health Organization and it proposes that WHO amend its structure to facilitate the idea. The proposed committee would be composed of elected experts and will have the membership of civil society. The participation of the World Medical Association, the World Psychiatric Association, the International Council of Nurses and the World Federation for Mental Health is invited.

The Committee's purview would include medically relevant human rights violations connected with torture such as those inherent to the Geneva Conventions, the death penalty, the illegal organ trade, the abuse of women, and breaches against security detainees and prisoners.

Asserted instances of medical torture

• Between 1937 and 1945, Japanese medical personnel who were part of Unit 731 participated in the torture killings of as many as 10,000 Chinese and Korean prisoners as well as Allied POWs during the second Sino-Japanese War. Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar was a covert biological and Chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during The Second Sino-Japanese War ( July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945) was a major war fought between the Republic of China and the
• During World War II, the Japanese tried out various biological weapons on Chinese subjects. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including
• During World War II, the Nazi regime in Germany conducted human medical experimentation on large numbers of people held in its concentration camps. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Nazi human experimentation was a series of controversial medical experiments on large numbers of prisoners by the German Nazi regime in its Concentration In particular, Josef Mengele's experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz earned him the nicknames "the Angel of Death" and "Dr. Dr Josef Mengele ( March 16, 1911 – February 7, 1979) was a German SS officer and a Physician in the "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Death".
• Japanese surgeons also performed vivisection and other medical experiments to torture American prisoners of war in several islands of the Pacific. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the [2] [3]
• Between 1970 and 1971, mentally disorienting interrogation techniques were used against interned prisoners captured in Northern Ireland, including white noise. Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Northern Ireland (Tuaisceart Éireann Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a Country within the United Kingdom, lying in the northeast of White noise is a random signal (or process with a flat Power spectral density. The Irish government complained to the European Commission for Human Rights, who found Britain guilty of torture; however the higher European Court of Human Rights ruled that the British government's actions were "inhuman and degrading but did not constitute torture". European Commission of Human Rights was a special Tribunal. From 1954 to the entry into force of Protocol 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, individuals The European Court of Human Rights ( ECtHR) (Cour européenne des droits de l’homme in Strasbourg was established under the European Convention on Human Rights [4]
• In Soviet mental hospitals, used to hold political prisoners, very unpleasant medications were given to these "patients" as a means of punishment. In the Soviet Union, Psychiatry was used for punitive purposes A psychiatric diagnosis was devised to describe people who oppose government policies.
• In 1978, "Pisaot menuh" ("Human Experiments") were performed on seventeen political prisoners held at the infamous prison Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh under the Khmer Rouge. Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar) A political prisoner is someone held in Prison or otherwise detained perhaps under House arrest, for his or her involvement in political activity The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Phnom Penh ( Khmer: ភ្នំពេញ official Romanization Phnum Pénh; pʰnum pɯɲ is the Capital The Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម Kmae Krɑhɑɑm was the Communist ruling political party of Cambodia &mdashwhich it renamed
• A study called "The Aversion Project" found that gay conscripts in the South African Defense Forces (SADF) during the apartheid era had been forced to submit to "curing" their homosexuality, both by electroshock therapies and by botched sex changes. The South African Defence Force (SADF were the South African Armed forces from 1957 until 1994 Sex change in animals Some species are known to change sex, including reproductive functions in special circumstances such as the clownfish
• There have been numerous claims that electroconvulsive therapy and prefrontal lobotomies and similar psychiatric treatments have sometimes been performed not in the patient's best interests, but rather as punishment for misbehaviour or to otherwise make the patient easier to manage. Electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT) also known as electroshock, is a controversial psychiatric treatment in which Seizures are electrically induced A lobotomy ( Greek: lobos Lobe of Brain, tomos "cut/slice" is a form of Psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or A classic example of this is the Lake Alice, New Zealand atrocity which occurred in the early 1970s. Children admitted to the Lake Alice Hospital's open child and adolescent unit were routinely punished with unmodified electroconvulsive treatment. Lake Alice Hospital was a rural psychiatric facility near Bulls in Rangitikei, New Zealand. Some governments (e. g. Norway and New Zealand) have since begun paying reparations to patients who suffered such treatments. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The World Health Organization has called for a ban on unmodified ECT, and states no form of it should be used on children.

Asserted instances of medical complicity in torture

• The SERE ("Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape") program's chief psychologist, Col. SERE, an Acronym for S urvival E vasion R esistance and E scape is a U Morgan Banks, issued guidance in early 2003 for the "behavioral science consultants" who helped to devise Guantánamo's interrogation strategy although he has emphatically denied that he had advocated the use of SERE counter-resistance techniques to break down detainees. The Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp is a controversial United States Detention center operated by Joint Task Force Guantanamo since 2002 in Guantanamo The New Yorker notes that in November, 2001 Banks was detailed to Afghanistan, where he spent four months at Bagram Air Base, "supporting combat operations against Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters". Bagram Air Base is a militarized Airport and housing complex that is located next to the ancient city of Bagram, southeast of Charikar in Parwan
• A 2005 report by Human Rights Watch suggested that torture was routine under the appointed Iraqi government. Human Rights Watch is a United States -based international Non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on Human rights. Human Rights Watch Report
• Dr. J. C. Carothers, British colonial Kenyan psychiatrist, has been implicated in designing interrogation of Mau Mau prisoners.
• Similarly, it has been implied that Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. Ayad Allawi violated his obligation to medical ethics whilst serving as Western European chief of secret police for the Baathist government of Saddam Hussein. Ayad Allawi ( إياد علاوي) (born 1945 is an Iraqi politician and was the interim Prime Minister of Iraq prior to Iraq's 2005 legislative Secret police (sometimes political police) are a Police agency which operates in Secrecy to maintain National security against internal The Arab Socialist Ba'th Party (also spelled Baath or Ba'ath; Arabic: حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي was founded in Damascus Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( Arabic: ar صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي --> April 28 1937 &ndash December 30 However, the same sources allege that Allawi had abandoned his medical education at that point and his medical degree "was conferred upon him by the Baath party. " [5].

Medical torture in fiction

• Actor Michael Palin plays a medical torturer in Director Terry Gilliam's 1985 dark comedic dystopian film Brazil. Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born 5 May 1943 is an English Comedian, actor writer and Television presenter best known for being one of the members Terrence Vance Gilliam (born 22 November 1940) is an American -born British Writer, Filmmaker, Animator and member Brazil is a 1985 Dystopian Black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam.
• In the film adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 the main character, Winston Smith (played by actor John Hurt), is subjected to electroconvulsive torture by the thought police. Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950 who used the Pseudonym George Orwell, was an English writer Nineteen Eighty-Four (also titled 1984) by George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) is a 1949 English Novel Winston Smith is a Fictional character and the Protagonist of George Orwell 's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. John Vincent Hurt, CBE (born 22 January 1940 is an English Actor. Electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT) also known as electroshock, is a controversial psychiatric treatment in which Seizures are electrically induced The Thought Police ( thinkpol in Newspeak) are the Secret police of Oceania in George
• Actor Gregory Peck plays Nazi medical torturer Josef Mengele in Director Franklin J. Schaffner's The Boys from Brazil. Gregory Peck (April 5 1916 &ndash June 12 2003 was an Academy Award -winning and four-time Golden Globe Award-winning American Film Dr Josef Mengele ( March 16, 1911 – February 7, 1979) was a German SS officer and a Physician in the Franklin James Schaffner ( May 30, 1920 - July 2, 1989) was an Academy Award -winning American Film director The Boys from Brazil is a 1978 Academy Award-nominated thriller made by Lew Grade 's ITC Entertainment and distributed by
• Actor Laurence Olivier plays Nazi torturer dentist Christian Szell in Director John Schlesinger's 1976 Marathon Man. Laurence Kerr Olivier Baron John Richard Schlesinger, CBE ( February 16, 1926 &ndash July 25, 2003) was an Academy Award -winning English Marathon Man is a 1976 thriller film based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman.
• The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson, depicts abuse of psychiatric techniques including electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomy. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 Comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman. John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22 1937) is an American Actor, internationally renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals Electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT) also known as electroshock, is a controversial psychiatric treatment in which Seizures are electrically induced A lobotomy ( Greek: lobos Lobe of Brain, tomos "cut/slice" is a form of Psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or
• In an episode of the FX series Nip/Tuck, a patient with Munchausen's syndrome has a self-inflicted wound repaired, and during her surgery the anesthesia is replaced with a paralyzing agent, possibly deliberately, which leaves her awake during the entire procedure. Nip/Tuck is an American television Medical drama series created by Ryan Murphy for FX Networks. Munchausen syndrome is a Psychiatric disorder in which those affected fake disease illness or psychological trauma in order to draw attention or sympathy to themselves Self-injury ( SI) or self-harm ( SH) is deliberate Injury inflicted by a person upon their own body without suicidal intent Anesthesia awareness, or "unintended intra-operative awareness" occurs during general anesthesia, when a patient has not had enough general anesthetic or Analgesic
• In the popular series, "24", various forms of medical torture (including hallucinogens, and injections) are utilized to obtain confessions and information from high- threat terrorists being interrogated in the fictional Counter-Terrorist Unit (CTU) of the United States. 24 is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American action Drama Television series.
• In Robocop 2 Cain has corrupt police officer Duffy dissected while still alive for telling where the hideout was. RoboCop 2 is a 1990 Science fiction film set in the near future in a Dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan.
• In "Die Another Day" the main character James Bond is tortured using Scorpion Venom and the antidote.
• In "Seconds" Rock Hudson's character is surgically altered against his will and allowed to die, as a result of his violating the code of the organization.
• In "Suddenly Last Summer" Elizabeth Taylor's character is going to get a lobotomy to prevent her from telling what she has seen, and the hospital superintendent is willing to do it to get a large endowment from her relative, who wants it done.
• In "Soylent Green" Edward G. Robinson's character is assisted in suicide simply by request, and to reduce the population, and Charleton Heston's character is later involuntarily subjected to a similar extermination, because he has learned a secret.
• In "Logan's Run" people are told that they are to receive a youth-giving treatment, but in reality it is a means of extermination.
• In a TV movie "Andersonville" a doctor gives poison to sick union soldiers, saying it is medicine.
• In the movie "Mandingo" a doctor gives poison to elderly sick slaves, claiming it is medicine, because they are too old to work.
• In the video game BioShock, Dr. BioShock is a video game by 2K Boston/2K Australia —previously known as Irrational Games Steinman, the game's first boss, is altered by plasmids, thus turning him into a crazy, maniacal doctor who tortures his patients until they die. A plasmid is an extra-chromosomal DNA molecule separate from the chromosomal DNA which is capable of replicating independently of the chromosomal DNA
• In the movie Sublime, a doctor, only known as Mandingo continually walks into the patient's room and switches his IV Drip with poison, he also carries around a pair of garden shears and cuts the skin between the patient's fingers.

See also

• World Medical Association
• Action T4
• International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use
• Geneva Convention
• Declaration of Geneva
• Declaration of Helsinki
• Doctors' Trial
• Duplessis Orphans
• Electroconvulsive therapy
• Nuremberg Principles
• Nuremberg Code
• Medical ethics
• Persecution of Falun Gong
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Vivisection

Sources

• Dr. The World Medical Association (WMA an international organization of Physicians was formally established on September 17, 1947, pursuant to the resolutions Action T4 (Aktion T4 was a program in Nazi Germany spanning October 1939 until August 1941 during which physicians killed 70273 peoplespecified in Hitler's The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH is a project that brings together the regulatory authorities The Geneva Conventions consist of four Treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the standards for International law for humanitarian This article pertains to the medical profession There is also the Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the 1923 Geneva This article is about the set of medical ethics principles regarding human experimentation The Doctors' Trial (officially United States of America v Karl Brandt et al The Duplessis Orphans (les Orphelins de Duplessis were the victims of a scheme in which several thousand Orphaned children were falsely certified as Mentally ill by Electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT) also known as electroshock, is a controversial psychiatric treatment in which Seizures are electrically induced The Nuremberg Principles were a set of guidelines for determining what constitutes a War crime. The Nuremberg Code is a set of Research ethics principles for Human experimentation set as a result of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials at the end of the Medical ethics is primarily a field of Applied ethics, the study of Moral values and judgments as they apply to Medicine. Falun Gong was introduced to the general public by Li Hongzhi (李洪志 in Changchun, China, in 1992 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly ( 10 December 1948 at Palais J. C. Carothers, M. B. D. P. M. 1954. The Psychology of the Mau Mau. Government Printer, Nairobi, Colony and Protectorate of Kenya.
• Carolina Elkins. 2005. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. Imperial Reckoning The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya written by Caroline Elkins, published by Henry Holt, won the 2006 Pulitzer New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-7653-0.
• Steven H. Miles, Abu Ghraib: its legacy for military medicine; The Lancet volume 364 issue 9435, page 725 (August 2004) [6]
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  • The Lancet editorial staff, How complicit are doctors in abuses of detainees?; The Lancet volume 364 issue 9435, page 637 [7]
  • Harvey Rishikof and Michael Schrage, Technology vs. This article is about the journal For other uses of the term "lancet" see Lancet (disambiguation. Torture; Slate, August 18, 2004. Slate is a fine-grained foliated homogeneous, Metamorphic rock derived from an original Shale -type Sedimentary rock composed of Clay [8]
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  • S. Predag, South African Gays Terrorized During Apartheid Era; Lesbian News, volume 26 issue 3 (October 2000)
• Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot regime: Race, Power, and genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1975; Yale University Press, 2002. pp. 438-439. [15]
• Joost R. Hiltermann. "Deaths in Israeli Prisons. " Journal of Palestine Studies. The Journal of Palestine Studies is an Academic journal established in 1971 Spring 1990. Vol. 19: Issue 3. pp. 101-110.
• Eliott Valenstein. Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness (Basic Books, 1986).
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