BMJ  2003;327:561 (6 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7414.561

Letter

Medical ethics, the Israeli Medical Association, and the state of the World Medical Association

Open letter to the BMA

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Persistent concerns have been raised about the role of the World Medical Association (WMA), the international watch-dog on medical ethics, in respect of their approach to the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) in particular.¹ Matters have now come to a head with the news that Yoram Blachar, longstanding IMA president, has been elected as chairman of the WMA council.

The WMA must know the well founded criticism over many years of the medical ethical track record of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA). In 1996 Amnesty International concluded that Israeli doctors working with the security services "form part of a system in which detainees are tortured, ill treated, and humiliated in ways that place prison medical practice in conflict with medical ethics."² Other major human rights organisations, such as Physicians for Human Rights (USA) and Human Rights Watch, published similarly. The IMA did nothing, although when challenged tended to dismiss . . . [Full text of this article]

Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London SE5 8AP derek.summerfield@slam.nhs.uk

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