c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)-Doctors and nurses around the world have been killed or jailed by governments for refusing to participate in torture and other human-rights abuses, Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday (May 22).

The London-based human-rights organization said doctors have been coerced-sometimes by law- into assisting in amputations, inflicted as punishment, and pressured into issuing false medical reports.

Health professionals are not only victims of coercive practices but also perpetrators, according to the report.

Physicians were criticized for giving”passive assistance”by tolerating government-sponsored torture as well as for actively giving medical advice,assisting at executions, or helping to cover up human rights violations.”The vulnerability of doctors or nurses results from the absence of a strong collective refusal to compromise ethical and professional standards,”the report said, calling on the United Nations, the World Health Organization and national medical associations to strengthen procedures for the reporting of human-rights violations.

The report cited examples from 15 nations of how medical workers became involved in human rights violations:

-In Iraq in 1994, doctors were required by law to amputate the ears and brand the foreheads of military and civilian deserters, the report said. One Iraqi physician was reportedly executed and others were imprisoned for refusing to carry out these orders.

-In Kenya in 1995, police reportedly tried to influence what doctors wrote in their medical reports on detainees who had been tortured.

-In Bahrain in 1995, security authorities warned doctors that if they treated people wounded in anti-government protests, they would suffer repercussions.

While most of the examples cited came from Third World countries, Amnesty also criticized physicians who assist at executions in the United States.”The role of health care workers is protecting people. Physicians should not be involved in executions in the United States or elsewhere,”said Christine Haenn, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International USA.”Is it a physician’s job to ensure that somebody dies in this country? We don’t think so.” The medical community has a key role in documenting human-rights abuses, the report said.”Some governments showing a cynical disregard for ethics try to put pressure on doctors to produce false evidence or no evidence at all,”Amnesty International said in its report.”Health workers who see the results of human rights abuses daily need support-obviously from their professional associations but also from the wider community. Governments should be accountable for their suppression or manipulation of medical evidence.

The World Health Organization, the report said, should give higher priority to defending health professionals living in nations where they are persecuted for living up to their professional ethics.

Amnesty International has previously disseminated codes of professional ethics with a view to enhancing awareness of the links between ethics and the protection of human rights.

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