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June 14, 2013

Top U.S. Doctors Condemn "Medical Ethics-Free Zone" at Guantánamo 
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A group of top U.S. doctors are calling on their colleagues in the
military to boycott the mass force-feeding of prisoners at Guantánamo
Bay. In an article for the prominent New England Journal of Medicine,
three medical professors from Boston University wrote: "Physicians at
Guantánamo cannot permit the military to use them and their medical
skills for political purposes and still comply with their ethical
obligations. Force-feeding a competent person is not the practice of
medicine; it is aggravated assault. ... As [Guantánamo] increasingly
... becomes a medical ethics-free zone, we believe it's time for the
medical profession to take constructive action," they wrote. The
majority of Guantánamo's 166 prisoners are on hunger strike to protest
their indefinite detention; 43 are now being force-fed through tubes.
The Pentagon has sent dozens of medical personnel to Guantánamo to
assist with force-feeding.

 

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