Citation

Iacopino V, Heisler M, Pishevar S, Kirschner RH. J. Am. Med. Assoc. JAMA 1996; 276(5): 396-402.

Affiliation

Western Regional Office of Physicians for Human Rights, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, American Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8683822

Abstract

Between June 1994 and October 1995, representatives of Physicians for Human Rights studied the problem of physician complicity in torture (ie, misrepresentation and omission of medical evidence in postdetention examinations of detainees) in Turkey. The research consisted of a survey of forensic documentation of torture, interviews with individual physicians who examine detainees, analyses of official medical reports of detainees, and interviews with survivors of torture. Results from the survey, interviews, and medical report analyses provide evidence that torture of political and criminal detainees continues to occur in Turkey and that Turkish physicians are coerced to ignore, misrepresent, and omit evidence of torture in their examinations of detainees to certify that there are no physical signs of torture.