Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: Book: Medicine Betrayed
Date: 16 Aug 92  12:19:44 EST




/* Written 10:50 am  Aug 15, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:hr.news */
ZED BOOKS Press Release

July 23, 1992

British Medical Association
MEDICINE BETRAYED
The Participation of Doctors in Human Rights Abuses

Doctors are trained in the prevention of suffering. Yet in many
countries throughout the world, their skills and knowledge are
utilized by the authorities in judicial and extra-judicial 
punishments of detainees, including torture and wrongful detention
in psychiatric facilities. MEDICINE BETRAYED is the report of a
British Medical Association (BMA) Working Party set up in 1990
and chaired by Sir Douglas Black, whose brief was to examine the
abuses of medical skills in relation to prisoners throughout the
world, and to make recommendations as to how such abuses can be
countered.

Torture is illegal under international law and The Declaration of
Tokyo implicitly requires a doctor to denounce any cases of
torture which come to his or her notice. This can be something of
a counsel of perfection in states where such protestations could
place the doctors themselves in considerable personal danger.
In Chile, Dr. Sheila Cassidy, a British doctor who had merely
treated victims of torture, was herself arrested and tortured. The
Working Party also found that, contrary to the popular image,
torture is not solely a repressive technique directed against
political activists. Countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Turkey and
India and many others are reported to use torture as an adjunct
to criminal investigation, in some cases after its use has been
institutionalized during periods of political repression.

Medical involvement in the torture process can take various forms.
Doctors may be called upon to examine prisoners prior to torture
to estimate fitness to withstand torture or identify weak points
to be exploited. They may be called upon to monitor the process
and provide resuscitation or advise when a life-threatening limit
is reached. Finally, doctors may be required to provide medical
treatment after torture. The report considers the moral dilemma
facing doctors in this latter category who realize that by
treating a prisoner, they may be be condemning that prisoner to
further abuse once he or she is considered fit enough.

The evidence of abuse of psychiatry for political purpose in the
former Soviet Union was verified in a large amount of published
material considered by the Working Party, including samizdat
documents. Such abuse included the detention of healthy
individuals in psychiatric institutions and the use of drugs and
unnecessary restraining procedures. The Working Party also heard
testimony from Ukrainian psychiatrist, Dr. Semyon Gluzman, who
pointed out that, although the old state has ceased to exist,
those who were responsible for previous abuses remain in positions
of power in the new republics. The report notes the isolation of
Soviet psychiatrists and their lack of information about theories
and treatments other than those in which they had been trained.
It recommends exchanges of scientific papers allowing psychiatrists
access to other viewpoints.

In addition to the gross violations represented by torture and
abuse of psychiatry for political reasons, MEDICINE BETRAYED
examines the participation of the medical profession in
punishments defined and regulated by law. Corporal punishment -
flogging - is carried out in around 20 counties, and amputation
of hands, or a hand and a foot, is a smaller number. Capital
punishment is provided for by law in more than 100 countries,
the methods used being shooting, hanging, decapitation, stoning,
electrocution, lethal gas and lethal injection. The first three
methods were found to be most widespread, with the last three
confined only to the USA. Some national laws specify a role for
doctors in judicial punishments and executions, which means that
medical presence is required during corporal punishment and that
doctors are involved in the procedures of capital punishment.
The report concludes that there is a nonsensical collision between
cruel punishments and the healing nature of medicine and suggests
that doctors could play a more useful role in opposing such
punishments rather than intervening on behalf of individual
'patients' and lending the procedure a medical gloss.

MEDICINE BETRAYED concludes with a comprehensive chapter of
recommendations for international action, involving a discussion
of issues surrounding intervention in internal affairs of
sovereign states, and the teaching of a framework of ethics
alongside training in medical skills.

MEDICINE BETRAYED is available from:

Zed Books
57 Caledonian Road
London N1 9BU, United Kingdom
Tel: 071/837-8466
Ask for Helen Salmon
        Katheryn Perry
	Belinda Budge
Price:  $55.00 hardback
        32.95 pounds for hardback
        $19.95 paperback
        12.95 pounds for paperback



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