By Steven H. Miles,M.D.

Vulnerable in body and mind, we look to our physicians for compassion -- which makes torture that's abetted by the medical profession especially horrific. Jacobo Timerman, a victim of Argentina's "dirty war," wrote of the special pain of seeing a doctor present in the interrogation room, of the sense of abandonment that lay in knowing that a person of science "is with you when you are tortured by the beasts." In the wake of the unspeakable acts of Nazi doctors during the Holocaust, modern governments adopted a series of international conventions that declared doctors' participation in torture to be unethical. Professional associations followed. A 1999 ruling of the American Medical Association's judicial council is typical; it prohibits U.S. physicians from "providing or withholding any services, substances, or knowledge to facilitate the practice of torture" and obliges doctors to support victims and to "strive to change situations in which torture is practiced."

Published Date: 27/06/2006 Format: HardBack ISBN: 1-4000-6578-x Publisher: Random House Rating: Retail price: US Dollar $ 23.95 (Rs. 1,713.38) Our price: Rs. 1,050.00 You Save: Rs. 663.38 Reviews: 0 reivew(s).

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