Last week, the California Legislature passed Senate Joint Resolution 19 (SJR 19), a resolution aimed at preventing California health professionals from engaging in coercive interrogations of detainees at Guantánamo and other U.S. military prisons. This resolution makes California the first state in the nation to condemn the use of torture in the 'War on Terror', and helps protect California health care professionals by informing them of their legal and ethical obligations to 'do no harm'. SJR19 also gives health professionals a legal reference to remove themselves from abusive situations should they have to contravene the orders of a military superior.
SJR 19 was written by State Senator Mark Ridley Thomas, and sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, in partnership with organizations like the Program for Torture Victims and Physicians for Social Responsibility. This legislation, which now represents the official position of the California Legislature that California opposes torture, will be a catalyst for other state legislatures to take similar action across the nation. In fact, the New York state legislature is working on similar legislation in the form of a bill that will have the full support of Governor David Paterson.
(Full disclosure: I'm involved with the AFSC working group that helped pull together this initiative with State Senator Ridley-Thomas' office)
As is mentioned in the press release, this resolution works in two ways - it gives health care professionals a legal way out of performing abuses that might come in the form of orders by military superiors, and it also lets them know that they can be held personally responsible if they participate in interrogations that do not conform to international standards of treatment of prisoners:
"The resolution calls attention to the intolerable dilemma that torture presents when those who are supposed to be the healers in our society are involved in the abuse of prisoners," said Eisha Mason, associate regional director for the American Friends Service Committee, one of the organizations that sponsored the resolution.
State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) introduced the resolution in response to evidence that – despite the medical oath to "first, do no harm" – some physicians, psychologists and other health personnel have been complicit in abusive interrogations of detainees by the military and the Central Intelligence Agency.
"As professional licensure and codes of ethics are regulated by states, California has the obligation to notify members of laws concerning torture that may result in their prosecution," said Ridley-Thomas.
This is also an important educational tool for health care professionals coming into the system, since many of them don't fully understand their legal and ethical obligations to follow the Geneva Conventions:
A survey of medical students conducted by the Harvard Medical School, published in the October, 2007 issue of the International Journal of Health Services, found that one-third of the respondents did not know that under the Geneva Conventions, they should refrain from participating in coercive interrogations.
"This is an important advance, not just in the U.S., but internationally as well," said Dr. Steven H. Miles, professor of medicine and bioethics at the University of Minnesota. (Dr Miles is also the author of the book "Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror.) "More doctors abet torture than treat its victims, and it is time for them to be called to the mission of medicine—not to practice torture—and to be reminded that they will be held accountable to international law."
"No government has the authority to legalize torture," Miles added.
The resolution further requests that the Department of Defense and the CIA remove California-licensed health professionals from participating in coercive interrogations.
"This has been an effort for almost three years," said Dr. Jose Quiroga, himself a torture survivor and now medical director of Program for Torture Victims, a sponsor of the resolution. "The California Legislature is sending a message to the Federal Government that they are wrong, and I hope that other state legislatures will begin to do this."
This resolution ultimately is a withdrawal of consent to the heinous practices of the Bush administration and its move to legitimize the use of torture in prosecution of war:
"California’s adoption of the resolution sends a clear message that we are going to live by the principles that this country is founded on," said Martha Dina Argüello, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles, another of the resolution’s sponsoring organizations. "We will not let fear erode our civil liberties and we will hold health professionals accountable to ethical and legal standards."