Introduction
Throughout history, human beings
have been exposed to atrocities by each other. Unfortunately, health
professionals have been involved in and have played a major role during several
unethical processes e. g. medical experiments on victims during World War II.
Even at the present time health professionals are engaged in the practical
application of several kinds of cruel procedures on human beings. The following
examples are listed:
- design of the methods of torture e. g. pharmacological torture.
- techniques of torture e. g. electric torture.
- teaching of torturers and the perpetrators.
Health care professionals are often present during the implementation of
torture and of judicial corporal punishment eg. flogging and caning. Health
professionals decide whether the victim is ‘fit for flogging/ caning’. In
addition, health professionals are often present during mutilations such as
amputation of hand or foot. In several countries using the death penalty, health
personnel are responsible for the victim being ‘fit for execution’.
The presence of health personnel during executions in order to use the organs
for transplantation has also been documented. The method of the execution and
its timing is varied depending on the organ required. False death certificates
have also been documented..
Enforced sterilisation of women, prenatal sex determination and enforced
abortion in order to ‘eliminate’ female babies, female circumcision and
mandatory testing for virginity are other examples of violation of human rights
using medical participation.
Our responsibilities
Health personnel have a
great responsibility in regard to these violations of human rights - and luckily
we have many of them who help treat and rehabilitate the victims despite the
attendant danger to themselves. There are many examples of health personnel who
have been threatened and subjected to reprisals because of their respect for the
principles of human rights.
London Declaration
In closing let me quote the
recent London Declaration of Amnesty International for health professionals:
On the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the first
Amnesty International medical group, this meeting of representatives of the
Amnesty International Health Professionals Network, which consists of
physicians, nurses, psychologists, dentists, students in the health professions
and others with a special commitment to health and human rights throughout the
world; believing that health professionals should defend and promote human
rights as an inherent part of their activities to promote health and well-
being, reaffirms its commitment to the application of health care skills,
knowledge and ethics to the defense and promotion of human rights around the
world, in particular to:
free all prisoners of conscience;
ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners;
abolish the death penalty, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment;
end the denial of medical care to prisoners as a form of ill- treatment, and
extra- judicial executions and ‘disappearances’;
calls on all health professionals to apply their clinical skills and
professional ethics to the prevention of human rights violations and the defense
of human values;
urges professional associations and societies to undertake systematic
activities to defend those under threat of human rights violations and to
investigate and act upon all reports of human rights abuses by health
professionals;
invites all health professionals to join with the Network, either as members
of Amnesty International or independently, to work to achieve these objectives.
Joergen Cohn, Professor of
Paediatrics, Coordinator of the Medical Group, Amnesty International, Norway,
The University of Tromsoe, MH-Breivika, N-9037, Tromsoe, Norway.
