"Doctors and psychologists working for the U.S. government engaged in the brutal and systematic torture of detainees," said Dr. Vincent Iacopino, PHR’s senior medical advisor and an author of the analysis. "Health professionals who participated in these crimes betrayed the most fundamental duty of the healing professions – to do no harm. They must be held accountable in order to restore trust in our professions and ensure this never happens again."
The summary that the committee released is just a fraction of the full report, and contains potential evidence of health professionals’ engagement in unethical human subjects research or experimentation. If confirmed, this unlawful practice could amount to crimes against humanity, which is prohibited by the Nuremberg Code, a set of principles adopted after the revelation of such practices under the Nazi regime.
The categories of potential violations committed by doctors, psychologists, and physician assistants include:
- Designing, directing, and profiting from the torture program
- Intentionally inflicting harm on detainees
- Enabling U. S. Department of Justice lawyers to create a fiction of "safe, legal and effective" interrogation practices
- Engaging in potential human subjects research to provide legal cover for torture
- Monitoring torture and calibrating the level of pain
- Evaluating and treating detainees for the purposes of torture
- Conditioning medical care on cooperation with interrogators
- Failing to document physical and/or psychological evidence of torture
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