LETTER
Human Rights and the Medical Profession
Farooq A. Padder, MD
15 October 1995 | Volume 123 Issue 8 | Page 636
TO THE EDITOR:
The recent article on the prevention of international torture [1] is of extraordinary importance. To arouse public awareness, more needs to be published in the most widely circulated journals. Because most of these crimes occur in countries where most people lack access to the medical journals such as Annals, I suggest that alternative measures be adopted. These could include the creation of help lines, development of closer ties with the medical societies of such countries, publications in the local medical journals, and, perhaps more importantly, increased emphasis on the importance of medical ethics to undergraduate students. Medical students and residents should be encouraged to spend electives in organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights. Special measures must be devised to educate the members of the medical profession who work in the army and police hospitals about these ethical issues. The medical societies should strictly address the members of the medical profession who ignore the codes of medical ethics and who participate in torture. National medical societies should be monitored by an international body. I believe that without such monitoring, expecting real change would be naive.
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Author and Article Information
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Nassau County Medical Center East; Meadow, NY 11554
1. "American College of Physicians. The role of the physician and the medical profession in the prevention of international torture and in the treatment of its survivors. Ann Intern Med. 1995; 122:607-13.".
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