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

EDITOR–On reading Summerfield's recent open letter I was astounded by the lengths to which he will go in besmirching Israel and the Israel Medical Association (IMA).1

Summerfield begins by discussing a “collusion of doctors with torture” that does not exist and about which he has yet to make more than a blanket accusation. I repeat, for the hundredth time, that the IMA and I as its president oppose torture in any form.

As to Summerfield's accusations regarding medical neutrality: rather than showing “blatant and systematic disregard,” IDF soldiers do the best they can to uphold human rights under very difficult conditions of constant terror attacks (including numerous “near attacks”) on Israeli civilians. None the less, when specific incidents …