Accountability for medical participation in torture

Abstract

After revelations of the participation of US health professionals in torture of detainees in military or CIA custody in the wake of 9/11, citizens filed complaints to disciplinary and licensing boards in seven states against psychologists who had been publicly identified as having been part of the torture apparatus. All of the complaints were eventually dismissed, only one with an explanation. In light of the disciplinary bodies' resistance to investigate participation in torture, much less impose sanctions, colleagues and I, then representing Physicians for Human Rights, helped a New York legislator, Richard Gottfried, draft a bill designed to facilitate discipline of health professionals for torture. We naively thought that bill would pass easily. Instead, the state psychiatric association opposed it as a regulatory intrusion that would stimulate bogus complaints and the Medical Society of the State of New York complained that potential barriers in access to evidence would make it difficult to defend health professionals. Despite otherwise broad support and Gottfried's efforts, the bill never passed.