AMA adopts policy on interrogations

The guidance says it's unethical for doctors to directly participate, but new guidelines from the Pentagon don't rule out asking psychiatrists to monitor questioning.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. July 3, 2006.

Chicago -- The AMA has joined the American Psychiatric Assn. in declaring that physicians should not conduct, monitor or directly participate in the interrogation of prisoners or detainees.

At its Annual Meeting last month, the House of Delegates adopted a Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs opinion providing that and other ethical guidance on physician participation in interrogation.

The new AMA policy, like the one adopted by the APA in May, says physicians may help develop general interrogation techniques so long as they are humane and refrain from threatening or causing physical or mental harm.

The CEJA opinion also says physicians have a duty to disclose how much access interrogators have to prisoners' medical information and to report any coercive interrogations to authorities. If action isn't taken after they raise awareness, the opinion says, doctors are ethically obligated to report the offenses to independent authorities empowered to investigate.

David Fassler, MD, an American Academy of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry delegate who proposed a resolution on interrogation at the 2005 Interim Meeting, applauded the CEJA report. "Physicians should not design, participate in or monitor the interrogation of prisoners or detainees," he said. "Such activities are incompatible with our primary obligation to do no harm. ... I'm glad to see that organized medicine will now be able to speak with one voice on this issue."