Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Medical Profession and Torture

Should individuals in the medical profession engage in the practice of torture? Do their ethical responsibilities in the helping professions provide guidelines against participating in torture? This article speaks to a proposed legislation that would prohibit those in the health professions from engaging in any practice amounting to torture. Do you think that health and helping professionals should establish codes of conduct within their professions against engaging in the practice of torture? Can you think of any codes that exist thus far (e.g. American Psychological Association)?


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2 comments:

  1. MWeekesMay 20, 2010 at 8:19 PM

    This is a critically important question that must be addressed. As you are thinking about this I recommend you also look at the Issue Brief posted by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy on this topic: http://www.acslaw.org/files/Chaffee%20FINAL.pdf The brief is by Devon Chaffee, "Rehabilitating the U.S. Ban on Torture: A Call for Transparent Treatment Policy."

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  2. kmackMay 23, 2010 at 10:58 PM

    Thanks for posting about this topic. I find it to be interesting, since I assumed that physicians do not take part in torture or interrogations. I know that American Public Health Association holds under policy 8521 puts forth that public health administrators will not par take in capital punishment. I can see were the controversy is because there is not a clear definition of what rights should be afforded to terrorist. Professor Weeks thanks for drawing our attention to the ASCLAW. I will certainly look that up.

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