Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Introduction
- 43 Global health ethics and cross-cultural considerations in bioethics
- 44 Physician participation in torture
- 45 Access to medicines and the role of corporate social responsibility: the need to craft a global pharmaceutical system with integrity
- 46 Global health and non-ideal justice
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
44 - Physician participation in torture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Introduction
- 43 Global health ethics and cross-cultural considerations in bioethics
- 44 Physician participation in torture
- 45 Access to medicines and the role of corporate social responsibility: the need to craft a global pharmaceutical system with integrity
- 46 Global health and non-ideal justice
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
Summary
Hours after a bomb kills 23 people in a busy marketplace, state armed forces arrest a suspect. Dr. A, a state physician, is summoned to the city's detention facilities. When he arrives, he finds the suspect unconscious and covered in blood from severe beatings inflicting by the security forces. He is asked to resuscitate the patient for further interrogation. Angered at the bombing, Dr. A complies. Shortly thereafter, in an attempt by detaining authorities to extract information from the detainee, Dr. A is asked to administer sodium pentothal (also known as “truth serum”) to the detainee. Before doing so, the suspect dies from his injuries sustained from the beatings. The detaining authorities instruct Dr. A to record the death as a suicide, which he does. Later, Dr. A wonders whether his actions and silence in the matter makes him complicit in the torture and subsequent cover-up of the incident. He is also uncertain whether he is obliged to act in the best interests of his employer (the state), himself, or his patient in such instances.
Dr. B, a psychiatrist in a detention center, is informed by one of her patients that he has not been charged or tried for any crime since his detention months earlier. In addition, he is regularly shackled and held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods, made to stand in awkward positions for hours on end, and deprived of sleep by the detaining authorities. Dr. B is unsure what to do with this information. […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics , pp. 350 - 358Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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