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Ten years ago, BMJ had a theme issue on the Nuremberg trials.(1) The
benefit of hindsight makes it easier to judge and condemn medical
professionals who were silent accomplices in crimes against humanity. It
is more difficult to recognise and judge crimes against humanity involving
medical professionals in the present – for example, those caught up in the
current war in Iraq. One does not have to do medical experiments on
prisoners of war to commit a crime. Simply treating a prisoner who has
been tortured, to render them fit for re-torture, is a crime.(2) The
Milgram experiment,(3) which has been repeated in many shapes and forms,
also confirms that the majority of normal, seemingly decent people will go
along unquestioningly with a morally wrong command, and only a minority
are capable of standing up and resisting a moral wrong. So the medical
profession should stand united behind medical doctor and RAF Flight
Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, currently being court-martialled for his
refusal to serve a third tour in Iraq.
Kendall-Smith cited the Nuremberg
trials, which ruled that 'just following orders' was an invalid defence
against war crimes. However, the Judge advocate. Jack Bayliss, would not
even allow this defence, saying “..that even if the Government had
committed an act of illegal aggression in invading Iraq, Dr Kendall-Smith
was wrong to imagine that he had any responsibility for it. If a defendant
believed that to go to Basra would make him complicit in the crime of
aggression, his understanding of the law was wrong….If that was the
defendant’s belief it was based on a greatly inflated sense of his own
position…..Whatever may have been the defendant’s belief as to his status,
it is disingenuous to argue that he was a leader. He was a non-combatant
of relatively junior rank and cannot possibly have been in any way
responsible for policy." (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2098768.html)
The statements of Mr Bayliss directly contradict the
findings of the Nuremberg trials on accountability at all levels, and the
principles reiterated in the BMJ theme issue on this topic. They also
assume that a medical officer’s role in war is innocent and completely
removed from combat. Elie Weisel, Nobel Peace laureate and a survivor of
Buchenwald concentration camp, certainly sees a connection in between the
role of medical professionals in Nazi Germany and doctors associated with
the torture of prisoners of war in Iraq.(4) It takes courage to take a
stand as Flight Leutenant Kendall-Smith has, and he deserves the support
of his profession.
C Raina MacIntyre
University of Sydney,
Australia
1. BMJ December 1996, Volume 313, Issue 7070).
2. Lifton RJ. Doctors and torture. New England Journal of Medicine.
351(5):415-6, 2004 Jul 29.
3. Milgram, Stanley. (1974), Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View
Harpercollins (ISBN 006131983X).
4. Wiesel, Elie. Without Conscience. NEJM. 2005; 352(15): 1511-1513
The doctor who said No to Iraq
Ten years ago, BMJ had a theme issue on the Nuremberg trials.(1) The
benefit of hindsight makes it easier to judge and condemn medical
professionals who were silent accomplices in crimes against humanity. It
is more difficult to recognise and judge crimes against humanity involving
medical professionals in the present – for example, those caught up in the
current war in Iraq. One does not have to do medical experiments on
prisoners of war to commit a crime. Simply treating a prisoner who has
been tortured, to render them fit for re-torture, is a crime.(2) The
Milgram experiment,(3) which has been repeated in many shapes and forms,
also confirms that the majority of normal, seemingly decent people will go
along unquestioningly with a morally wrong command, and only a minority
are capable of standing up and resisting a moral wrong. So the medical
profession should stand united behind medical doctor and RAF Flight
Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, currently being court-martialled for his
refusal to serve a third tour in Iraq.
Kendall-Smith cited the Nuremberg
trials, which ruled that 'just following orders' was an invalid defence
against war crimes. However, the Judge advocate. Jack Bayliss, would not
even allow this defence, saying “..that even if the Government had
committed an act of illegal aggression in invading Iraq, Dr Kendall-Smith
was wrong to imagine that he had any responsibility for it. If a defendant
believed that to go to Basra would make him complicit in the crime of
aggression, his understanding of the law was wrong….If that was the
defendant’s belief it was based on a greatly inflated sense of his own
position…..Whatever may have been the defendant’s belief as to his status,
it is disingenuous to argue that he was a leader. He was a non-combatant
of relatively junior rank and cannot possibly have been in any way
responsible for policy." (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2098768.html)
The statements of Mr Bayliss directly contradict the
findings of the Nuremberg trials on accountability at all levels, and the
principles reiterated in the BMJ theme issue on this topic. They also
assume that a medical officer’s role in war is innocent and completely
removed from combat. Elie Weisel, Nobel Peace laureate and a survivor of
Buchenwald concentration camp, certainly sees a connection in between the
role of medical professionals in Nazi Germany and doctors associated with
the torture of prisoners of war in Iraq.(4) It takes courage to take a
stand as Flight Leutenant Kendall-Smith has, and he deserves the support
of his profession.
C Raina MacIntyre
University of Sydney,
Australia
1. BMJ December 1996, Volume 313, Issue 7070).
2. Lifton RJ. Doctors and torture. New England Journal of Medicine.
351(5):415-6, 2004 Jul 29.
3. Milgram, Stanley. (1974), Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View
Harpercollins (ISBN 006131983X).
4. Wiesel, Elie. Without Conscience. NEJM. 2005; 352(15): 1511-1513
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests