to the editor: re <u+201c> when doctors first do harm <u+201d> (op-ed, nov. 23): m. gregg bloche quotes memos from the central intelligence agency<u+2019>s office of medical services that made clear what was expected of its doctors at clandestine interrogation sites: to flout medical ethics by deceiving and brutalizing detainees and generally collaborating in abuse that included designing a waterboarding method more extreme than the one condoned by lawyers in the george w. bush administration. that is, engineering and participating in torture was expected behavior for c.i.a. doctors. there was thus created what can be called a malignant normality in a subculture of torturers. for me this is reminiscent of nazi doctors, whose more vast and systematic participation in torture and murder i studied some decades ago. the doctors in charge of the gas chambers in auschwitz had not killed anyone before their assignment to that death camp. they, too, had been socialized to a subculture of killing in what was also a manifestation of the normalization of evil. president-elect donald trump has advocated waterboarding and other forms of torture, but you report ( front page , nov. 29) that if he seeks to resume it, he would meet with resistance from within the c.i.a., and especially from its medical professionals. in a democracy we are able to carry out what dr. bloche rightly asks for: <u+201c>an independent inquiry into what those physicians did and how they lost their ethical moorings.<u+201d> such an inquiry could go far toward reasserting humane medical principles as well as acknowledging and rejecting the malignant normality that can prevail when condoned from above and hidden from ordinary citizens. robert jay lifton new york the writer, a psychiatrist, is the author of <u+201c> the nazi doctors: medical killing and the psychology of genocide.<u+201d> to the editor: no physician or other medical professional should be allowed to use his or her education, training and professional status to cooperate in the torture or improper treatment of prisoners. the states that license medical professionals should bar them from participating in torture or improper treatment of prisoners. widely accepted principles of medical ethics <u+2014> from the world health organization, the united nations, the american medical association and others <u+2014> ban such conduct. the law needs to enforce it. dr. m. gregg bloche is right that <u+201c>c.i.a. doctors may be america<u+2019>s last defense against a return to savagery.<u+201d> i believe that there would be much less abuse of prisoners if even a few physicians said, <u+201c>sorry, sir; i could lose my license if i do that.<u+201d> as president-elect donald trump talks about resuming the use of torture, this is especially important. richard n. gottfried new york the writer, chairman of the new york assembly health committee, is the sponsor of a. 4489, to prohibit physicians and other medical professionals licensed in new york from participating in torture or improper treatment of a prisoner. a version of this letter appears in print on november 30, 2016, on page a22 of the new york edition with the headline: c.i.a. doctors, ethics and torture. today's paper | subscribe
c.i.a. doctors, ethics and torture
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