Contrasting ethical policies of physicians and psychologists concerning interrogation of detainees

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1653

Published 30 April 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1653
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1653

Analysis

Contrasting ethical policies of physicians and psychologists concerning interrogation of detainees

Kenneth S Pope, independent licensed psychologist¹, Thomas G Gutheil, professor of psychiatry²

¹ PO Box 777, Norwalk, CT 06856-0777, USA, ² Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, MA 02446, USA

Correspondence to: K Pope kspope@mac.com

The treatment of prisoners held in prisons such as GuantanamoBay is controversial. Kenneth Pope and Thomas Gutheil questionwhether the different stances of doctors and psychologists arejustified

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

The professions of medicine and psychology share many ethicalvalues, but their ethical policies differ sharply. The contrastingresponses of physicians and psychologists in the United Statesto the interrogation of detainees provide a striking exampleand show the ethical challenges that confront all healthcareprofessions. The results of such decisions can affect the publicinterest, how a profession understands itself, and countlessindividual lives.

In the years since the 11 September terrorist attacks in theUS, numerous articles have considered what forms of involvement,if any, are appropriate for physicians and psychologists indetainee interrogations in settings like Abu Ghraib prison andGuantanamo Bay detainment camp.¹ In this article we take a brieflook at the contrasting ethical policies adopted by physiciansand psychologists in the United States regarding this controversyand consider some of the reasons for the differences.

Physicians limited their involvement in detainee interrogationsto such . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

Seltzer, A. (2009). Physicians have been involved. BMJ 339: b2818-b2818 [Full text]
Pope, K. S, Gutheil, T. G (2009). Authors' reply. BMJ 339: b2845-b2845 [Full text]

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