Reply #26: American Psychiatric Association-No psychiatrist participation in interrogation!!!

[autorank]

From: http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug06/interrogations.html

American Medical Association and American Psychological Association are the same in allowing assistance to interrogation.

"From rules that APA and AMA share comes what both associations allow: Psychologists and physicians may consult to interrogations under strict ethical guidelines—namely, that the interrogation is not coercive and that the roles of health-care provider and consultant are never mixed. Explaining that the purpose of an interrogation is “to prevent harm or danger to individuals, the public, or national security,” and that a physician’s ethical obligations to individuals must be balanced against obligations to protect the public, the AMA report states that physicians may consult to interrogations by developing interrogation strategies that do “not threaten or cause physical injury or mental suffering” and that are “humane and respect the rights of individuals."

The American Psychiatrist Association shows why it's superior to the two above. They know that participating in interrogation won't stop there and they take the appropriate ethical stand. Good for them:

" While the psychiatrists’ much briefer (three paragraphs and a footnote) statement does not offer a conceptual framework for their position, the apparent attention to a single principle—Do No Harm—leads the psychiatrists to de-emphasize the role of protecting society. Thus, the psychiatric association states that psychiatrists should not participate in an interrogation by “being present in the interrogation room, asking or suggesting questions, or advising authorities on the use of specific techniques of interrogations with particular detainees,” even if the interrogation is conducted for the purpose of “identifying other persons who have committed or may be planning to commit acts of violence.” The difference between the psychologists and physicians, on one hand, and the psychiatrists, on the other, becomes understandable when placed in the context of how the associations have conceptualized the issue differently."

Dr. autorank says, you go American Psychiatric Association!!!