Psyche, Science, and Society

Bill to ban health providers aiding abusive interrogations move in New York

June 20th, 2008

In New York Assemblymember Richard N. Gottfried is sponsoring a bill to prohibit state licensed health providers from aiding torture or participating in interrogations. As Gottfried explains:

“Under the bill, health care professionals would be required to provide proper care and treatment to prisoners as best they can under the circumstances. Any evaluation or treatment they provide must be in the interest of the prisoner. Military or other governmental orders would not shield a person from the loss of their professional license in New York.” [emphasis added.]

The passage of this bill would constitute an enormous step toward restoring the health professions to their proper role of promoting human welfare.

Here is a Press Release from Assemblymember Gottfried about the bill:News from

Assemblymember
Richard N. Gottfried
75th Assembly District

Anti-Torture Bill Moves in Albany

June 10, 2008

Physicians and other health care professionals licensed by New York would be prohibited from participating in torture or improper treatment of a prisoner under a bill approved unanimously by the Assembly Higher Education Committee today.

“It is shocking that our government engages in torture and improper treatment of prisoners,” said the bill’s author, Assembly Health Committee chair Richard N. Gottfried. “It is even more shocking to see reports that physicians and other health care professionals are cooperating in it.”

In February 2008, the Washington Post reported on U.S. Attorney General Robert Mukasey’s argument that waterboarding was not torture because it was monitored and limited by someone with medical training. In 2005, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on violations of medical ethics against medical personnel at Guantanamo Bay for sharing prisoner’s health information with interrogators.

The bill has 27 co-sponsors in both parties and is the first of its kind in the nation, Gottfried said.

“It is never justifiable to torture another human being. It is wrong for a health care professional to use his or her education and training to participate in or facilitate torture or improper treatment of a prisoner,” said Gottfried. “I don’t think any New York patient would want to be treated by a health care professional who would do that to another human being.”

The bill would apply to conduct by any New York-licensed health care professional wherever it happens, and regardless of whether it is committed in connection with any government. The bill would follow international treaties and standards and professional standards by establishing the proper conduct of health care professionals in relation to the treatment of prisoners, Gottfried said.

“New York law ordinarily cannot reach beyond our borders, but the state can limit the professional behavior of a person to whom it grants a license,” Gottfried said. “We often revoke a license for out-of-state misconduct.”

Under the bill, health care professionals would be required to provide proper care and treatment to prisoners as best they can under the circumstances. Any evaluation or treatment they provide must be in the interest of the prisoner. Military or other governmental orders would not shield a person from the loss of their professional license in New York.

The bill is based on the UN Convention Against Torture, adopted in 1982, and the World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo, adopted in 1975.

If the bill (A.9891) is approved by the Higher Education Committee, which has jurisdiction over professional licensure, it will go to the Assembly Codes Committee, which will review the penalty provisions of the bill.

Prohibiting health professionals from cooperating with torture is advocated by the UN General Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Association of Social Workers, among others. The bill was developed with the assistance of Physicians for Human Rights, and the New York Campaign Against Torture.

New York readers, please lobby your Assembly members to support this bill!

Entry Filed under: APA, Interrogation, Politics, Psychology, Torture