Abstract
In Part II we look at the boundaries of torture and the ethical issues they bring to light. In this chapter I employ Nel Noddings’ notion of the three components of evil as a framework of analysis. Each one is applied to torture, recognizing that its aspects of physical pain and mental and psychological suffering are set out by the UN Convention Against Torture in 1984. One change over the years is the increasing use of abusive practices which leave no scars or other physical evidence. Examples are sleep deprivation, isolation, threats to family members, and forced standing. For perpetrators, such tactics offer significant advantages.
The therapeutic mission is the profession’s primary role and the core of physicians’ professional identity. If this mission and identity are to be preserved, there are some things doctors must not do.
—M. Gregg Bloche and Jonathan H. Marks.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works Cited
Adams, Guy B., Danny L. Balfour and George E. Reed. 2006, September–October. Abu Ghraib, Administrative Evil, and Moral Inversion: The Value of ‘Putting Cruelty First.’ Public Administration Review 66 (5): 680–693. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3843897 . Retrieved 2 January 2018.
Agin, Dan. 2009, April 22. How It Is: Psychiatrists, Physicians, and Torture. Huffington Post. https://www.cchrint.org/2009/09/08/the-huffington-post-how-it-is-psychiatrists-physicians-and-torture/. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
Allhoff, Fritz. 2006. Physician Involvement in Hostile Interrogations. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 15: 392–402. http://files.allhoff.org/research/Physician_Involvement_in_Hostile_Interrogations.pdf. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
———. 2008. Physicians at War: The Dual-Loyalties Challenge. New York: Springer.
Arie, Sophie. 2011, September 9. Doctors Need Better Training to Recognise And Report Torture. British Medical Journal 343. http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5766. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Baha Mousa. 2011.The Report of the Baha Mousa Inquiry. www.bahamousainquiry.org/report/index.htm. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Bloche, M. Gregg and Jonathan H. Marks. 2005, January 6. When Doctors Go to War. New England Journal of Medicine 352 (1): 3–6. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200504073521423. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Brewer, Stephanie Erin, and Jean Maria Arrigo. 2009. Preliminary Observations Why Health Professionals Fail to Stop Torture in Overseas Counterterrorism Operations. In Interrogations, Forced Feedings, and the Role Of Health Professionals, ed. Ryan Goodman and Mindy Jane Roseman. Cambridge, MA: Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School.
British Broadcasting Corporation. 2011, September 8. Baha Mousa Inquiry: ‘Serious Discipline Breach’ by Army. bbc.com. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14825889. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Cohen, Andrew. 2012, February 6. The Torture Memos, 10 Years Later. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/the-torture-memos-10-years-later/252439/. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
Dayan, Colin. 2007. The Story of Cruel and Unusual. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Doherty, Mike. 2015, April 23. A Former CIA Officer Explains How to Apply Interrogation Techniques to Everyday Life. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4wbygn/three-former-cia-officers-want-to-help-you-apply-interrogation-techniques-to-everyday-life-113. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Editorial Board, The New York Times. 2016, October 21. Torture and Its Psychological Aftermath. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/opinion/torture-and-its-psychological-aftermath.html. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Fink, Sheri and James Risen. 2017, June 20. Psychologists Open a Window on Brutal CIA Interrogations. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/20/us/cia-torture.html. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Ford, Matt. 2014, December 13. Antonin Scalia’s Case for Torture. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/antonin-scalias-case-for-torture/383730/. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Goldberg, Nicholas. 2009, February 15. ‘State Secrets’ on Trial. The Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/la-oe-secrets15-2009feb15-story.html. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Greenberg, Karen J. 2006. The Torture Debate in America. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Human Rights Watch. 2000, October, Welcome to Hell: Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Extortion in Chechnya - The Chernokozovo Detention Center. Human Rights Watch Report. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/russia_chechnya4/detention-center.htm. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Ignatius, David. 2005, December 16. Stepping Back From Torture. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121501438_Comments.html. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Jackson, Richard. 2007, July. Language, Policy and the Construction of a Torture Culture in the War on Terrorism. Review of International Studies 33 (3): 353–371. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-international-studies/article/language-policy-and-the-construction-of-a-torture-culture-in-the-war-on-terrorism/5006D871A4E5550BE5EBA0F10CCEDACF. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Justo, Luis. 2006, June 24. Doctors, Interrogation, and Torture. British Medical Journal 332 (7556): 1462–1463. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25689660. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Koch, Tom. 2006, May. Weaponizing Medicine. Journal of Medical Ethics 32 (5): 249–252. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27719620?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Lithwick, Dahlia. 2007, February 1. The Third Man: The 4th Circuit Does One More Round on Enemy Combatants. Slate. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2007/02/the_third_man.html. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Maio, Giovanni. 2001, May 19. History of Medical Involvement in Torture—Then and Now. Department of Medical History The Lancet 357 (9268): 1609–1611. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/vol357no9268/PIIS0140-6736(00)X0242-5. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Nel Noddings. 1989. Women and Evil. Berkeley, LA: University of California Press.
Physicians for Human Rights. 2009, August. Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Revealed in the May 2004 CIA Inspector General’s Report.
Savage, Charlie. 2004, December 27. CIA Resists Request for Abuse Data. Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Stephens, Joe. 2005, January 6. Army Doctors Implicated in Abuse. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2005/01/06/army-doctors-implicated-in-abuse/f44fe582-81d5-4eba-80da-a0edd78bbc61/?utm_term=.da01bb242159. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Stritzke, Werner G.K., Ed. 2009. Terrorism and Torture: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Teays, Wanda. 2008. Torture and Public Health. In International Public Health Policy and Ethics, ed. Michael Boylan. Dordrecht: Springer.
———. 2011. The Ethics of Otherness. In Morality and Global Justice Reader, ed. Michael Boylan. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
The Rendition Project. Ridha al-Najjar. https://www.therenditionproject.org.uk/prisoners/najjar.html. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
The U.S. Senate Committee. 2014, December 8. The Senate Committee Report on Torture. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/09/world/cia-torture-report-document.html. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
United Nations. 2009. The UN Committee Against Torture: Human Rights Monitoring and the Legal Recognition of Cruelty. Human Rights Quarterly. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40389967. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Van Natta Jr., Don and Souad Mekhennet. 2005, January 9. German’s Claim of Kidnapping Brings Investigation of U.S. Link. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/world/europe/germans-claim-of-kidnapping-brings-investigation-of-us-link.html. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Wilkinson, James. 2017, October 10. CIA Black Site ‘Cobalt’. The Daily Mail (UK). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4965130/Grim-facts-emerge-CIA-black-site-Cobalt.html#ixzz58S4T8vjo. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
Wisnewski, J. Jeremy, and R.D. Emerick. 2009. The Ethics of Torture. London: Continuum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Teays, W. (2019). Boundaries of Torture. In: Doctors and Torture. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 80. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22517-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22517-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-22516-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-22517-9
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)