Physicians for Human Rights: More Torture Investigation Needed

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: Doctors Role in CIA Waterboarding "May Amount to Human Experimentation"

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sourced by Karen Hatter

In an eight page paper entitled, Aiding Torture: Health Professionals' Ethics and Human Rights Violations Revealed in the May 2004 CIA Inspector General's Report, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) express concerns the actions of health care professionals, during their participation in torture practices, labeled 'enhanced interrogation techniques' by the Bush administration during the so called War on Terror or War Against Terrorism, may have amounted to human experimentation and are calling for more investigation.     

One of the authors of the report, Scott Allen, MD, PHR’s Medical Advsisor and lead author of the report, in a statement, wrote:

Medical doctors and psychologists colluded with the CIA to keep observational records about waterboarding, which approaches unethical and unlawful human experimentation. Interrogators would place a cloth over a detainee’s face to block breathing and induce feelings of fear, helplessness, and a loss of control. A doctor would stand by to monitor and calibrate this physically and psychologically harmful act, which amounts to torture. It is profoundly unsettling to learn of the central role of health professionals in laying a foundation for US government lawyers to rationalize the CIA’s illegal torture program.

Click here for a link to the report released by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).

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