FromĀ Boston University School of Public Health: A new journal article in theĀ American Journal of Public Health evaluates the similarities between the use of medical professionals in the Holocaust and the War on Terror to justify and carry out torture.
“In both cases, the authors wrote, ‘health professionals discarded their ethical obligation to prevent harm to people and instead became agents of the state.’ Both cases also shared a legal argument: The medical professionalsā actions were deemed lawful by their respective governments.
‘[The] United States simply narrowed and redefined ātortureā to suit its security needs,’ the authors wrote. ‘Waterboarding, throwing people against walls, suspending people by chains from a ceiling, force-feeding, confinement in boxes, extreme sleep deprivation, and repeated humiliation all became lawful and acceptable behavior.'”