Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:25:24.650Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Doctors under Tension

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Abstract

The practice of medicine should be humanitarian, in which the primary object is the relief of suffering and the interests of patients are paramount. In certain circumstances even the best of doctors might find it difficult to sustain these principles. Doctors, especially those employed by the State, may be expected to participate in aspects of corporal or capital punishment, which introduces a conflict of loyalties and subordinates the interests of individuals to those of the State. Others, in the prison or police services, may get drawn into or comply with physical abuse and torture, most commonly through failing to report incidents that come to their notice. In this paper I discuss some aspects of medicine under tension in the light of the South African experience.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Ferris, R (1997) Psychiatry and the death penalty. Psychiatric Bulletin, 21, 746748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Medicine Betrayed (Report of a Working Party of the British Medical Association) (1992) London: Zed Books in association with the British Medical Association.Google Scholar
3.Amnesty International French Medical Commission and Valerie Marange. (1989) Doctors and Torture: Collaboration or Resistance. (London: Bellew).Google Scholar
4.Amnesty International. (1978) Political imprisonment in South Africa. (London: Amnesty International).Google Scholar
5.Institute of Medical Ethics Working Party on Medical Involvement in Torture, 10, 1990.Google Scholar
6.Rayner, M (1987) Turning a Blind Eye, Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, American Association for the Advancement of Science.Google Scholar
7.Jenkins, T (1988) The health care of detainees: the law, professional ethics and reality.In Medical Ethics: Proceedings of the 4th Faculty of Medicine Symposium, Benatar, S. R. (ed).Google Scholar
8. (1983) Medical care of prisoners and detainees. Report of the ad hoc committee of the Medical Association of South Africa into the medical care of prisoners and detainees. South African Medical Journal, 63; supplement 1–5.Google Scholar
9.Koryagin, A. (1988) Toward truly outlawing torture [letter]. Science, 241, 1277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Hornblum, A. M. (1997) They were cheap and available: prisoners as research subjects in twentieth century America. British Medical Journal, 315, 14371441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.Smith, R (1984) Prison Health Care, (London; British Medical Association).Google Scholar