ACTION ALERT: Join AMSA in Anti-Torture Action in NY on May 18th!

This event is organized by the New York Medical Student Coalition Against Torture (NYMSCAT@gmail.com). Email to learn more, request materials, and get involved!

As I have written previously, medical professionals, students, and human rights groups in New York State are teaming up for action to pass the nation’s first law holding medical professionals accountable for assisting torture and abuse of prisoners.  AMSA is proud to join the list of organizations putting their support behind the proposed legislation:

  • National Physicians Alliance
  • Committee for Interns and Residents
  • American College of Physicians-NY
  • NY State Nurses Association
  • NY Civil Liberties Union
  • Center for Constitutional Rights
  • Human Rights Watch
  • Amnesty International
  • Physicians for Human Rights
  • I Have A Dream Foundation
  • Metro NY Religious Campaign Against Torture
  • (full list and statements at whenhealersharm.org/)

ANTI-TORTURE LOBBY DAY in Albany: Join AMSA and PHR with medical students from across the state in our first Anti-Torture Lobby Day in Albany on May 18th!  This is our chance to meet with our local lawmakers and tell them that ending torture is important to us as ethical medical professionals and Americans.  We will meet at 9AM for a white-coat press conference and advocacy training with experts from the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, and follow up with advocacy meetings.  If you are a NY State resident and a medical or pre-medical student, don’t miss this chance for real-time local action for human rights!

Don’t forget to sign the petition: Stop Torture NY.org

Read AMSA’s statement of support after the cut:

From AMSA’s Letter of Support:

AMSA strongly believes in creating and upholding policies that prevent the inhumane treatment of prisoners and detainees under any circumstances. A health care professional who comes to the aid of a prisoner is fulfilling an ethical principle of beneficence. However, a health care professional who attends to a prisoner in order to allow torture or mistreatment to commence or continue, or who explicitly aids or participates in torture or mistreatment of a prisoner, is violating the ethical principles of medicine.

We strongly condemn the mistreatment of prisoners and detainees, encourage medical professionals to speak out against torture, and condemn interrogation techniques that inflict physical or psychological harm as a means of obtaining information. As future physicians, we are compelled to protect and promote the ethical duties of all healthcare personnel.

AMSA is committed to promoting the highest attainable quality of health care for our patients, and supporting the integrity, professional development, and well-being of young medical professionals. This legislation will help protect these values by establishing a mechanism for health care professionals to safely report cases of torture or suspected torture to proper authorities, and to refuse participation on account of their medical licensure. We hope that this bill will act as a model for other states and mark the beginning of legislative efforts across the country banning healthcare professional participation in torture.

Read more about doctors and torture in the New York Times: “Doctors without Morals” by Leonard Rubenstein, JD, and Stephen Xenakis, MD, and letters in response.

Can’t come to Albany?  Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311170120878

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About The Author

Hana Akselrod

Hana Akselrod is a third-year MD/MPH student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She is currently Editor-In-Chief of Global Pulse Journal and a member of AMSA's AIDS Advocacy Network SC.

Other posts byHana Akselrod

Author his web sitehttp://www.globalpulsejournal.com

11

05 2010


by Hana Akselrod
posted in AMSA, Action, Human Rights, Torture
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