Hostile Interrogations & the Military Physician

📖 The Scoop

In an age when a dedicated terrorist, or small terrorist team, can cause injury or death to many, the necessity of forcible extraction of information from a person is a timely, relevant, and vitally important topic for discussion and debate.

When actionable intelligence indicates direct knowledge by a detainee of the impending attack, society must answer the question of whether the application of torture is defensible on the grounds of saving many lives. Uniformly, following international conventions against torture, bioethicists condemn its use. However, most countries apply torture to extract information. In emergent situations, when every moment matters and the lives of many are in balance, considerations of torture must be made in a coherent and logical manner whose ethics mandate consideration prior to the event.

Positing that torture is justified in such a setting, the torture team, usually consisting of a physician, or other health care person will apply important medical knowledge regarding the detainee’s health and strength to advance the session. In the military community, such as when the United States is the occupying power, the military physician may be asked to assist the torture team. The author posits four specific criteria for the military physician, arguing that the application of torture in emergent conditions is not only defensible but reflects the furtherance of the physician's duty of care to the society of which s/he is part.

Genre: Law / Ethics & Professional Responsibility (fancy, right?)