Torture

Torture: sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, say bioethicists
(January, 2015)

Michael Cook | Torture is an issue on which the public might expect bioethicists to be moral absolutists. Never again! Never ever! It was somewhat surprising, then, to read in the New York Times that one of the world’s leading animal rights theorists, Oxford’s Jeff McMahan, support torture. . . .continue reading

Psychologists criticised in CIA torture report
(USA: December, 2014)

Michael Cook | Two psychologists contracted by the CIA to create enhanced interrogation techniques for al-Qaeda detainees have come under fire for violating human rights and medical ethics. Although pseudonyms were used in the 480-page report published this week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, it was clearly referring to Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, who were paid US$81 million for their work. . . . continue reading

American Psychological Association removes infamous "Nuremberg Defense" from ethics code
(USA: March, 2010)

Stephen Soldz | . . . like every change in APA's policies on psychologists providing interrogation support, this change is too little too late. APA leadership waited till over a year after the end of the Bush regime and its "enhanced interrogation" torture program before changing this clause which provided protection for psychologists aiding the torturers. . . continue reading

Psychologists and Abusive Interrogations: Acting on Conscience
(USA: 2007)

Dr. Mary Pipher | . . .For the past few years, I have been troubled by various media and Department of Defense reports that psychologists have designed protocols and trained and supervised interrogators in the use of sophisticated methods for breaking the human spirit and destroying mental functioning. . .continue reading

Complicity after the fact: moral blindness becomes a virtue and necessity
Moral blindness becomes a virtue and necessity:
US scientists were "accomplices after the fact" in Japanese doctors' war crimes
(1945)

Michael Cook | . . .hundreds of Japanese medical personnel . . . experimented on Chinese civilians and prisoners of war . . .They killed an estimated 3,000 people in the infamous Unit 731 in Harbin, in northeastern China before and during World War II – plus tens of thousands of civilians when they field-tested germ warfare. . . the Americans struck a deal with the doctors. They traded immunity from prosecution for access to scientific information from the ghastly Japanese experiments – many of which are too grim to detail here. . . continue reading

What turns ordinary people into torturers?
(Iraq: 1979-2003)

Michael Cook | Article 5 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Nonetheless, governments still torture people in police stations and prisons. How do the torturers feel about it? . . . continue reading

Torture

Torture: sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, say bioethicists(January, 2015)

Psychologists criticised in CIA torture report(USA: December, 2014)

American Psychological Association removes infamous "Nuremberg Defense" from ethics code (USA: March, 2010)

Psychologists and Abusive Interrogations: Acting on Conscience(USA: 2007)

Complicity after the fact: moral blindness becomes a virtue and necessityMoral blindness becomes a virtue and necessity: US scientists were "accomplices after the fact" in Japanese doctors' war crimes (1945)

What turns ordinary people into torturers?(Iraq: 1979-2003)