Doctors and Psychologists Should Do No Harm

According to an oath approved by the American Medical Association, “you will exercise your art solely for the cure of your patients, and will give no drug, perform no operation, for a criminal purpose, even if solicited, far less suggest it.” One would assume that with that direct quote coming from an oath approved by the AMA that doctors would be willing and understanding to follow it. Of course, in this world, you can’t always expect doctors to do a good thing one hundred percent of the time.

When I happened across the Washington Post article about psychologists and physicians playing an active role in the torture of terrorists in Guantanamo, I couldn’t help but get enraged. These are the same people that we trust with our lives. Yet, they were down in Guantanamo doing something that went completely against their practice. They were helping the CIA torture people. They were using their talents for a criminal purpose.

When I heard this, I had to say, “Well, at least President Obama is in office. He’ll prosecute and get these people thrown in jail or at least have their licenses revoked.”

How wrong could I be? Not only is he not going to at all do anything about it, he won’t even do what is right and have these people lose their license. Since when does the United States condone doctors and psychologists to participate in acts of torture? These doctors would revive a prisoner when he passed out so that the torturers could continue their torturing. Psychologists would provide techniques that would work, such as using insects to instill fear in the inmates. These are people who went to school to learn how to do good things and instead, they’re doing these horrible things?

Perhaps there is the argument that they were doing their civic duty for America; however, that changes nothing in my eyes. They are doctors and psychologists and if they are going to call themselves that, they should not be participating in these actions. What’s next? Are these doctors going to experiment on these prisoners because hey, that may get them to give us secrets! I thought the United States was starting to get bad before, but this is just ridiculous.

That’s fine if President Obama doesn’t want to throw them in jail. I can understand that. However, take their jobs away from them. Remove these people from their jobs and don’t allow them to ever get another practicing license again. A doctor and psychologist should do no harm. Yet, these individuals were doing harm. If they were anyone else, they’d not only lose their license, but they’d lose their job. None of that is happening here and it should. Get rid of these doctors so they can do no harm.

In the 1940s, doctors got away with researching on people and torturing people. Why are we allowing something like this to happen again? I understand that we are scared because these same people, allegedly, are part of a terrorist organization. However, that doesn’t mean that we need to stoop to their level. The United States of America is supposed to be a good country. I don’t want America to forget the rights of all simply because we are afraid. What next? We give up our own rights because we are afraid?

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