Citation

Annas GJ, Crosby SS. New Engl. J. Med. 2015; 372(24): 2279-2281.

Affiliation

From the Department of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health (G.J.A., S.S.C.), and the Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine (S.S.C.) - both in Boston.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Massachusetts Medical Society)

DOI

10.1056/NEJMp1503428

PMID

26061833

Abstract

This editorial is open access. Use the DOI link.

In December 2014, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's report on torture was released to the public. The 600-page report (a redacted summary of the still-classified 6000-page report) documents in disturbing detail the use by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of physicians, lawyers, and psychologists in its post-9/11 torture program at more than a dozen “black sites,” or secret prisons, around the world.1 The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, has called the report “courageous and commendable,” while condemning the torture program it details and noting that “torture cannot be amnestied” and should not be permitted to recur. To begin to understand the torture, we believe it's necessary to understand how physicians and lawyers collaborated to overcome their professional inhibitions.

There are nine additional paragraphs to the editorial.

Language: en