Keeping Doctors out of the Interrogation Room: A New Ethical Obligation That Requires the Backing of the Law‪.‬

INTRODUCTION The World Medical Association ("WMA") has provided in its Declaration of Geneva that members of the medical profession must never use their "medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat." (1) Moreover, a fundamental tenet of the Hippocratic Oath requires physicians to "do no harm." (2) However, despite these ethical obligations, military physicians stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have collaborated with interrogators in carrying out coercive interrogation methods against detainees. (3) The New England Journal of Medicine has reported that physicians at U.S. detention facilities have shared detainees' medical files with interrogators; have helped interrogators in designing interrogation strategies that were customized to a detainee's medical condition; and have trained interrogators on how to question detainees. (4) Military physicians have also advised interrogators on ways to exploit detainees' fears and increase their stress levels. (5) There have even been reports suggesting that physicians have participated in the waterboarding of detainees. (6)