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Commentary: It’s About the Fundamentals

Dr. Young is Attending Psychiatrist, Whiting Forensic Division, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Middletown, CT, and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Address correspondence to John L. Young, MD, Whiting Forensic Division, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Box 70, Middletown, CT 06457. E-mail: jlmyoung{at}pol.net

Recent actions by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association document a growing consensus that health professionals should not become directly involved in hostile interrogations. Challenging questions remain regarding the permissibility of indirect involvement, such as training directed toward promoting the humanity of interrogation procedures and the reliability of their results. A fundamental challenge comes from those who hold that a physician may relinquish the caring role and proceed to disregard medical ethics altogether. Some experts have even gone so far as to allege that all existing rules of medical ethics are baseless statements and thus cannot bind anyone. Forensic psychiatrists’ continuing contributions to this debate are critical.