Guantanamo medics similar to doctors who abetted Biko death: Lancet letter
AFP
US medics who abet abuse at Guantanamo Bay are akin to the doctors who covered up the murder of South African anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko 30 years ago, a protest letter published in The Lancet says.
Its 260 signatories, who include doctors, professors of medicine and anti-torture activists, accuse the US medical authorities of closing ranks to protect military medical workers involved in the War on Terror.
Breaches of medical ethics include force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay and fraudulent record-keeping on detainees who have died as a result of failed interrogations, says the letter, which appears in Saturday's issue of the British medical weekly.
"The failure of the US regulatory authorities to act is damaging the reputation of US military medicine," says the missive. "No health-care worker in the War on Terror has been charged or convicted of any significant offence despite numerous instances documented."
It says that a complaint that was sent 18 months ago to the American Medical Association (AMA) has still had not had a reply.
It adds that the medical boards of the states of California and Georgia argued that they either did not have the jurisdiction to probe the allegations or not found sufficient evidence to support any prosecution.
"The attitude of the US medical establishment appears to be one of 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'," the protestors say.
(Continued here.)
US medics who abet abuse at Guantanamo Bay are akin to the doctors who covered up the murder of South African anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko 30 years ago, a protest letter published in The Lancet says.
Its 260 signatories, who include doctors, professors of medicine and anti-torture activists, accuse the US medical authorities of closing ranks to protect military medical workers involved in the War on Terror.
Breaches of medical ethics include force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay and fraudulent record-keeping on detainees who have died as a result of failed interrogations, says the letter, which appears in Saturday's issue of the British medical weekly.
"The failure of the US regulatory authorities to act is damaging the reputation of US military medicine," says the missive. "No health-care worker in the War on Terror has been charged or convicted of any significant offence despite numerous instances documented."
It says that a complaint that was sent 18 months ago to the American Medical Association (AMA) has still had not had a reply.
It adds that the medical boards of the states of California and Georgia argued that they either did not have the jurisdiction to probe the allegations or not found sufficient evidence to support any prosecution.
"The attitude of the US medical establishment appears to be one of 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'," the protestors say.
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home