Physicians and torture: lessons from the Nazi doctors

Abstract

How is it possible? What are the personal, professional and political contexts that allow physicians to use their skills to torture and kill rather than heal? What are the psychological characteristics and the social, cultural and political factors that predispose physicians to participate in human rights abuses? What can be done to recognize at-risk situations and attempt to provide corrective or preventive strategies? This article examines case studies from Nazi Germany in an attempt to answer these questions. Subjects discussed include the psychology of the individual perpetrator, dehumanization, numbing, splitting, omnipotence, medicalization, group dynamics, obedience to authority, diffusion of responsibility, theories of aggression, training, cultural and social contexts, accountability and prevention.

Why Did U.S. Healthcare Professionals Become Involved in Torture During the War on Terror?

“…Some U.S. health professionals who worked in Guantanamo noted that they believed that Islamic terrorists were Bmalignant cells^with Bbrains that are structurally and functionally different from ours ( Bufacchi and Arrigo 2006, 363). Once someone is culturally or animalistically dehumanized it is much easier, even for someone with the intelligence and training of a medical doctor, to hurt, or to continue to hurt, them (Kelman 2005;Grodin and Annas 2007).…”

“…These findings might be surprising given the health professions' traditional association with independence and autonomy; though these professionals also have strong traditions of conformity and obedience to authority (IMAP/OSF 2013). It is possible that there may be a particular kind of authority-orientated personality who is attracted to security institutions, and individuals who are strongly resistant to authority might be screened out of military training (Grodin and Annas 2007). For example, before physicians were sent to Guantanamo, the military screened them to ensure that they did not morally object to force-feeding so as to ensure that they would obey orders to force-feed if instructed to do so (IMAP/OSF 2013).…”

“…Redefining torture as Bsomething else^serves to create and maintain an Balternate reality^where torture is no longer torture; this makes it easier for health professionals to become involved in torture because they are protected from the full moral implications of their acts and they can view what they are doing as less hazardous than torture (Crelinsten 2003;Grodin and Annas 2007). Redefining hunger striking as attempted suicide can create a situation where health professionals feel duty and morally bound to intervene to Bprotectd etainees, even though their intervention contravenes international guidelines and is harmful to the Bpatient'sm ental health.…”

Genocide Perspectives IV

“…A particular breach of trust occurs when physicians abandon their special responsibilities (Grodin and Annas 2007;Annas and Grodin 1992). That doctors act as architects, leaders, instruments and auxiliaries of mass murder, conducting lethal experiments on behalf of a transgressor state, may beggar belief: yet after World War II, prosecution investigators at the Nuremberg and other medical trials exposed and thoroughly documented such activities on a large scale (Alexander 1948(Alexander , 1949.…”

“…That doctors act as architects, leaders, instruments and auxiliaries of mass murder, conducting lethal experiments on behalf of a transgressor state, may beggar belief: yet after World War II, prosecution investigators at the Nuremberg and other medical trials exposed and thoroughly documented such activities on a large scale (Alexander 1948(Alexander , 1949. The transgressions of doctors, psychiatrists and other professionals under Nazism have been extensively examined (see Grodin and Annas 2007, Schmidt 2007, Weindling 2006, Baum 2008, Dudley and Gale 2002and Markusen 1997 for examples of recent bibliographies). Such a debacle was unprecedented.…”