Abstracts fra Bibliotek for Læger 2/2014

Leder: Læger og tortur
Redaktionen

 
Originalartikel: Den ansigtsløse torturbøddel

- Magt og bøddel i et historisk-sociologisk perspektiv
Claus Kold

 

The faceless torturer

Power and torturer in an historical-sociological perspective

Bibl Læger 2014;206;110-144

 

This article argues that the violence of the torturer is not a product of a sick mind, but that the torture is carried out representing the state. As a consequence, this article argues, the expressions of torture change up through history according to different stories which build the power of the state. The changes in the meaning of symbols also rearrange the symbolic order of power and thus rearrange the objectified social orders as they have materialized in infrastructures, government, law, economy, military, police, prisons, etc.; as a concrete example of the history of the torturer is used the soldier and the military institution. The article presents different legal limitations of violence and how these limitations have been handled, and then goes on to present the research into the professionalization of the soldier. Next the research into the Esprit de Corps and the social cohesion of the combat group is presented. The article ends with an outline of new wars and what guides the forms of future torture.

 
En case: Julias historie

 
Originalartikel: Lægers medvirken til tortur
Jens Modvig

 

Medical doctors’ complicity in torture

Bibl Læger 2014;206:147-160

Torture – the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering for a specific purpose by a representative of the authorities – is prohibited according to international law. Nevertheless, medical doctors are frequently complicit in torture. This may be done actively or passively. Historically, torture was a mainstream interrogation method but even in the 19th century, doctors raised doubt as to the effectiveness of using torture in terms of getting credible information. 

The Second World War prompted a process of developing international human rights standards and professional ethical guidelines with the United Nations and the World Medical Association as very active players. The purpose was, inter alia, to avoid repetition of the Nazi doctors’ experiments on human beings and also to ensure adherence to ethical standards for doctors at risk of complicity in torture, e.g. prison doctors and military doctors. However, in spite of this comprehensive development of standards and guidelines, doctors working under “dual loyalties” are still at risk of being complicit in torture. It is concluded that – in addition to the strengthening of international standards – the national medical associations have an important role to play to implement standards and to secure the integrity of the medical profession in this respect. 

 
En case: Hüseyins historie

 
Originalartikel: Tortur og etik
Jesper Ryberg

 

Torture and ethics

Bibl Læger 2014;206;163-173

 

Following a standard version of the so-called “ticking bomb argument” we are asked to consider a scenario in which interrogative torture of a terrorist constitutes the only way in which it is possible for the police to prevent the detonation of a bomb that has been placed at a school and which consequently will kill 400 innocent children. According to the argument the right decision, when confronted with this scenario, is to torture the terrorist, which means that torture cannot always be regard as morally wrong. There are cases in which torture is permissible or even obligatory. “The ticking bomb argument” has for several decades constituted a turning point of philosophical discussions of torture. However, the argument is also frequently brought forward in political debates of the question as to whether it is ever acceptable for the state to subject criminals – such as terrorists – to interrogative torture. In this article it is shown that a part if this discussion is confused. More precisely, it is argued that the leap from viewing that it is acceptable (or obligatory) to use torture in “the ticking bomb scenario” to the conclusion that it is sometimes acceptable for the state to subject criminals to torture in the real world, is premature.

 
En case: Adisas historie

 
Kvartalets genstand
Morten A. Skydsgaard

 

Originalartikel: Den medicinske indsats i kampen mod tortur

Inge Genefke & Bent Sørensen

 

The medical effort in the work against torture

Bibl Læger 2014;206;178-191

 

Based on a personal account by two pioneers in the global work against torture the manuscript describes how Danish doctors from the beginning put their stamp on the work against torture. Amnesty International acknowledged in the early seventies that the work – apart from being juridical – implied a medical effort. Inge Genefke initiated, nationally and internationally the founding of the RCT- the Copenhagen-based Rehabilitation Centre for Torture victims in 1982 and the IRCT – the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture-victims in 1985. Danish doctors and other health professionals turned the early work with rehabilitation of torture victims from Greece and Latin America into a fruitful mixture of treatment, research and documentation, in which especially the distinct sequelae of torture were documented for the first time. With the UN Convention Against Torture from 1984, which clearly defines torture and underscores the obligation to prosecute perpetrators, and to disseminate knowledge, the legal foundation for the work against torture had been provided and the obligation to treat victims of torture was established. The article describes the setback following 9/11. The so-called war on terrorism has put international pressure on human rights and made authorities believe, erroneously, in the prevention of terrorism through torture. Forty years of experience and research document the opposite.

 
En case: Genjis historie

 
Et billede fra min hverdag
Morten Sodemann

 
Originalartikel: ”Til samfundets og mine medmenneskers gavn”
Jens Christian Borrebye Bjering

 

“For the good of my patients” 

Doctors and torture in popular culture

Bibl Læger 2014;206;198-216

In an attempt to map how American popular culture presents the connection between the medical profession and torture, the article performs a comparative analysis of tree movies—Dr. No (1962), Marathon Man (1976) and X-Men First Class (2011)—in which the main antagonist is a torturing doctor. The article concludes that the torturing doctors of the movies share three distinct qualities, which all can be viewed as perversions of specific qualities of the medical profession: Unbridled science, perverted care, and totalitarian control. The article sets these characteristics into the context of all three movies’ explicit references to the Holocaust and the Third Reich, thus also touching on more general aspects of how popular cultural cinema has represented Nazi Germany. Towards the end, the article suggests that in recent years a new relation between the medical profession and torture has been established with the advent of TV shows in which forensic pathologists have taken on the role of main protagonists, replacing the more traditional character of the detective.