US doctors join call for end to embargo against Cuba

A group of doctors from the United States joined with international colleagues in a call to end their country’s embargo against Cuba during a critical care conference held in Havana in mid-September. The doctors called the embargo a “humanitarian catastrophe . . . that violates both moral standards and international law.”

In a letter to President Barack Obama, dated 24 October 2013, the doctors state, “We are not a political party. Nor are we even an organization. Nor do we have a shared social agenda. We are simply doctors who met to share our clinical knowledge and experiences in emergency and critical care medicine.”

The international gathering, sponsored by DevelopingEM, drew about 185 doctors from 18 …