Source: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_us_rule92
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 08:59:44+00:00

Document:
United States, Field Manual 27-10, The Law of Land Warfare, US Department of the Army, 18 July 1956, as modified by Change No. 1, 15 July 1976, § 89.
The manual also provides that wounded and sick members of the armed forces shall not be subjected to biological experiments. It further stipulates that medical or scientific experiments not necessitated by the medical treatment of a protected person are prohibited.
United States, Field Manual 27-10, The Law of Land Warfare, US Department of the Army, 18 July 1956, as modified by Change No. 1, 15 July 1976, §§ 215 and 271.
The manual also provides that “biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health” are war crimes under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
The US Air Force Pamphlet (1976) refers to Articles 12 of the 1949 Geneva Convention I, 12 of the 1949 Geneva Convention II and 13 of the 1949 Geneva Convention III and prohibits medical, scientific and biological experiments.
United States, Air Force Pamphlet 110-31, International Law – The Conduct of Armed Conflict and Air Operations, US Department of the Air Force, 1976, §§ 12–2(a), 13-2 and 14-4.
The US Instructor’s Guide (1985) provides that subjecting captured persons to medical or scientific experiments is a capital offence prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever.
The US Naval Handbook (1995) provides: “nor may [the wounded and sick] be subjected to any medical procedure not called for by their condition or inconsistent with accepted medical standards”.
(7) The conduct took place in the context of and was associated with armed conflict.
c. Comment. It is mutilation or maiming to put out a person’s eye, to cut off a hand, foot, or finger, or to knock out a tooth, as these injuries destroy or disable those members or organs. It is also mutilation or maiming to injure an internal organ so as to seriously diminish the physical vigor of a person. Likewise, it is mutilation or maiming to cut off an ear or to scar a face with acid, as these injuries seriously disfigure a person. A disfigurement need not mutilate any entire member to come within the article, or be of any particular type, but must be such as to impair perceptibly and materially the victim’s comeliness. The disfigurement, diminishment of vigor, or destruction or disablement of any member or organ must be a serious injury of a substantially permanent nature. However, the offense is complete if such an injury is inflicted even though there is a possibility that the victim may eventually recover the use of the member or organ, or that the disfigurement may be cured by surgery.
d. Maximum Punishment. Death, if the death of any person occurs as a result of the mutilation or maiming. Otherwise, confinement for 20 years.
United States, Manual for Military Commissions, published in implementation of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, 10 U.S.C. §§ 948a, et seq., 18 January 2007, Part IV, § 6(14), pp. IV-11 and IV-12.
The US Naval Handbook (2007) states that “the following acts are prohibited with respect to detainees in DOD [Department of Defense] custody and control: … mutilation”.
… Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, as construed and applied by U.S. law, establishes minimum standards for the humane treatment of all persons detained by the United States, coalition, and allied forces. Common Article 3 prohibits at any time and in any place: “mutilation … ”.
(7) The conduct took place in the context of and was associated with hostilities.
United States, Manual for Military Commissions, published in implementation of Chapter 47A of Title 10, United States Code, as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2009, 10 U.S.C, §§ 948a, et seq., 27 April 2010, § 5(14), p. IV-12.
Under the US War Crimes Act (1996), grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions are war crimes.
(C) Performing biological experiments.—The act of a person who subjects, or conspires or attempts to subject, one or more persons within his custody or physical control to biological experiments without a legitimate medical or dental purpose and in so doing endangers the body or health of such person or persons.
(E) Mutilation or maiming.—The act of a person who intentionally injures, or conspires or attempts to injure, or injures whether intentionally or unintentionally in the course of committing any other offense under this subsection, one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, by disfiguring the person or persons by any mutilation thereof or by permanently disabling any member, limb, or organ of his body, without any legitimate medical or dental purpose.
(B) death, damage, or injury incident to a lawful attack.
United States, War Crimes Act, 1996, 18 United States Code Sec. 2441, as amended by Military Commissions Act, 17 October 2006, § 2441 (c)(3) and (d).
“(14) MUTILATING OR MAIMING.—Any person subject to this chapter who intentionally injures one or more protected persons by disfiguring the person or persons by any mutilation of the person or persons, or by permanently disabling any member, limb, or organ of the body of the person or persons, without any legitimate medical or dental purpose, shall be punished, if death results to one or more of the victims, by death or such other punishment as a military commission under this chapter may direct, and, if death does not result to any of the victims, by such punishment, other than death, as a military commission under this chapter may direct.
United States, Military Commissions Act, 2006, Public Law 109-366, Chapter 47A of Title 10 of the United States Code, 17 October 2006, p. 120 Stat. 2628, § 950v(b)(14).
“(C) PERFORMING BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS.—The act of a person who subjects, or conspires or attempts to subject, one or more persons within his custody or physical control to biological experiments without a legitimate medical or dental purpose and in so doing endangers the body or health of such person or persons.
“(E) MUTILATION OR MAIMING.—The act of a person who intentionally injures, or conspires or attempts to injure, or injures whether intentionally or unintentionally in the course of committing any other offense under this subsection, one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, by disfiguring the person or persons by any mutilation thereof or by permanently disabling any member, limb, or organ of his body, without any legitimate medical or dental purpose.
United States, Military Commissions Act, 2006, Public Law 109-366, Chapter 47A of Title 10 of the United States Code, 17 October 2006, pp. 120 Stat. 2633 and 2634, Sec. 6(b)(1)(B)(d)(1)(C) and (E).
(C) other acts of violence serious enough to be considered comparable to murder, torture, mutilation, and cruel or inhuman treatment, as defined in section 2441(d) of title 18, United States Code.
(f) … “mutilation” … refer[s] to, and ha[s] the same meaning as, [the] same term in Common Article 3 [to the 1949 Geneva Conventions].
(a) Common Article 3 Standards as a Minimum Baseline. Consistent with the requirements of the Federal torture statute, 18 U.S.C. 2340–2340A, section 1003 of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, 42 U.S.C. 2000dd, the Convention Against Torture, Common Article 3, and other laws regulating the treatment and interrogation of individuals detained in any armed conflict, such persons shall … not be subjected to … mutilation, … , whenever such individuals are in the custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other agent of the United States Government or detained within a facility owned, operated, or controlled by a department or agency of the United States.
United States, Military Commissions Act, 2009, § 950t(14).
In its judgement in the Milch case in 1947, the US Military Tribunal at Nuremberg found the accused guilty of conducting medical experiments on prisoners of war and inhabitants of occupied territories without their consent.
United States, Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Milch case, Judgement, 17 April 1947.
High Altitude Experiments, Freezing Experiments, Malaria Experiments, Mustard Gas Experiments, Ravensbrueck Experiments Concerning Sulphanilamide and Other Drugs; Bone, Muscle, and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation, Sea-Water Experiments, Epidemic Jaundice, Sterilization Experiments, Typhus (Fleckfieber) and Related Experiments, Poison Experiments, Incendiary Bomb Experiments, Jewish Skeleton Collection.
United States, Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Brandt case (The Medical Trial), Judgement, 20 August 1947.
In its judgement in the Schultz case in 1969, the US Court of Military Appeals identified maiming among “crimes universally recognized as properly punishable under the law of war”.
United States, Court of Military Appeals, Schultz case, Judgement, 7 March 1969.
We support the principle reflected in article 11 [of the 1977 Additional Protocol I] that the physical or mental health and integrity of persons under the control of a party to the conflict not be endangered by any unjustified act or omission and not be subjected to any medical procedure which is not indicated by the state of health of the person concerned and which is not consistent with generally accepted medical standards.
In 1992, in reports submitted pursuant to paragraph 5 of UN Security Council Resolution 771 (1992) on grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV committed in the former Yugoslavia, the United States described acts of mutilation perpetrated by the parties to the conflict.
United States, Former Yugoslavia: Grave Breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Third Submission), annexed to Letter dated 5 November 1992 to the UN Secretary-General, UN Doc. S/24791, 10 November 1992, pp. 8 and 13; Former Yugoslavia: Grave Breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Fourth Submission), annexed to Letter dated 7 December 1992 to the UN Secretary-General, UN Doc. S/24918, 8 December 1992, p. 12.
In a concurrent resolution adopted in 2000, the US Congress expressed its sense concerning the war crimes committed by the Japanese military during the Second World War, in particular experiments conducted on living prisoners of war. The resolution asked the Government of Japan to apologise for these crimes and pay immediate reparations to the victims.

References: § 89
 § 6
 § 5
 § 2441
 § 950
 § 950