Suspected of having condoned the torture of Iraqi prisoners, some American military doctors now face ugly comparisons to soldier-physicians who conspired in abuses by Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler and other dictators.
Although the Americans’ alleged misconduct is far less severe, some say it is made worse because they did not have to fear being killed if they didn’t cooperate.
“I don’t think there are shades of gray,” said Dr. Vincent Iacopino, director of research for Physicians for Human Rights. “If they did not have the immediate threat of harm, they had the obligation if they witnessed abuses to say something about them.”
The Defense Department issued a statement Friday taking “strong exception” to allegations made last week in the British medical journal The Lancet. An article by an American professor said doctors at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison falsified death certificates to hide killings, hid evidence of beatings and revived a prisoner so he could be tortured more.
The Defense Department says there is “no evidence” of that and objects to what it calls the “wholesale indictment” of U.S. medical personnel and care in Iraq. The statement says that if an ongoing investigation finds guilt, “those responsible will be held accountable.”
Medical ethicists say that being silent while patients are harmed is a profound breach of ethics and the oath that doctors take. They have called for reforms of military medicine, more training for doctors to recognize signs of torture, and an independent, nonmilitary-led investigation of the scandal.
The Lancet article was written by Steven Miles, a University of Minnesota professor who has researched human rights issues for 20 years. It was based on media reports, congressional testimony, sworn statements of detainees and soldiers, and medical journal accounts – not events he witnessed firsthand.
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