When a doctor goes wrong
BMJ 2013; 347 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f5455 (Published 10 September 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f5455
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It is a pity that the author of this thoughtful article concentrated on one extra-ordinary ex-doctor's actions.
I submit that some doctors 'go wrong' when they sign up to give up their ability to think morally for themselves by donning an armed forces uniform and signing up to supporting the killing and disabling engendered by invasions and occupations.
Flight Lieutenant Dr. Malcolm Kendall-Smith loved the RAF and being an RAF Medic. When he realised that supporting our invasion and occupation of Iraq was wrong he refused to cooperate in training and was court martialled. He believed the invasion to have been illegal and did not want to be complicit in an 'act of aggression' contrary to international law. Five RAF officers formed the panel with a judge advocate who found him guilty on five charges on April 13 2006. He was imprisoned for eight months, fined £20,000 and dismissed the service.
Doctors beware if you value your ability to act according to your conscience and think carefully before signing this away.
'Going wrong' in the eyes of some is acting with great courage and virtue to others!
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This is all perfectly true, but is nothing to do with being a doctor. He has been a doctor for no more than 6 years, and a dictator for 19.
Anyone, medically trained or not, would be corrupted by such absolute power. Those old enough to remember Mrs Thatcher can tell you that after 13 years her behaviour became that of someone who believes her word is law.
Doctors are no different and should not fool ourselves that our medical training protects us from the toxic effects of too much power on the human brain.
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I cannot and do not condone the use of chemical weapons in wartime. However to suggest that “when a doctors goes wrong” can lead to calculated and extreme barbarism is perhaps an exercise in scaremongering.
Most of us are aware that between 1932 and 1972 the U.S Public Health Service conducted the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis amongst African Americans. These men thought they were receiving free health care from the U.S government. In actual fact they were part of an unethical study looking into the effects of untreated syphilis at a time when treatment was readily available.
Doctors are respected and valued in society. We must do everything possible to maintain this hallowed privilege. A few infamous criminal doctors have attracted bad publicity for an otherwise untainted profession.
Clearly as with Tuskegee it may be a government policy for the actions reported, rather than a specific doctor.
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Imagine after 12 years of studying and hard work, finally get close to finishing your training in the job you always wanted in life. And then a phone call from home and family responsibility meant your intended ambition (and life) is taken away from you, forever.
This is what Bashar al-Assad had to face and endure since 1994 at the age of 29.
I don't think you can consider he is a practicing doctor since then. He was recalled after the death of the original heir to the Assad throne (his older brother) and then groomed for military and political leadership (or dictatorship depending on your viewpoint).
While I am sympathetic to his perceived lack of choice in his life to give up his career, I abhor any unlawful and inhumane decisions he had made to preserve his power for selfish gain.
As to suggestions that he ordered chemical weapons to be used, I doubt there is conclusive proof that he was directly responsible. Just as there is no evidence that Syrian rebels may be using chemical weapons, or a rogue commander ordering the strike without Assad's approval. As far as I am concerned, there is no irrefutable evidence at this moment that Assad ordered such an attack.
Of course doctors are supposedly trained to be analytical and systematic but it does not make all of us potential dictator and mass murderers.
To suggest it need the brain of a doctor to come up with crimes of atrocity and unhumanity insults the intelligence of various dictators like Idi Amin (fourth grade English-language education), Saddam Hussien (law school drop out), Joseph Stalin (spiritual high school drop out) and Pol Pot (Engineering School drop out).
It doesn't need medical training to pick up a phone to order a chemical attack. Don't understand how organophosphorus poison work? Call up your local friendly chemical weapon expert. Similarly you don't have to know sociology and ethics to order mass genocide.
It boils down the basic lack of respect and empathy to your fellow human beings regardless of their political or racial stance.
Perhaps for some, they are born with it, for many others, they learn to despise other people, and does it well.
I suggest we ignore this dangerous potential within us at our peril.
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Re: When a doctor goes wrong
Thank you for the responses. I agree with many of the points below including that doctors are generally much less likely to be criminals than others (as stated in the article), that we should work to maintain our 'hallowed privilege' and that we may be no more immune to the toxic effects of absolute power than anyone else.
I would note that Assad had been in medical training for longer than he had been a ruler when violence broke out (about 12 years). A quirk of becoming a doctor is also that it is a title for life whether one practises or not - perhaps increasing the sense of being special.
Regardless of whether or not one agrees that the regime used chemical weapons, the real tragedy is that a country is being destroyed in front of us.
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