Medical Professionals Condemn CIA Medical Officials Present During Torture

The lengthy U.S. Senate report released to the public on Tuesday detailed the interrogation strategy used by the CIA on detainees has critics lambasting the government agency for its torturous tactics that were largely deemed ineffective. Human rights activists and the medical community have zeroed in on a technique of force-feeding called “rectal feeding” and “rectal hydration” as a deplorable practice that discredits the medical professionals who likely aided in the torture.

Atul Gawande, a surgeon and author, posted a series of tweets condemning the behavior of medical professionals who aided and abetted the torture to occur. For example: “the torture could not proceed w/o medical supervision. The medical profession was deeply embedded in this inhumanity.”

Gawande expressed his disdain in knowing that doctors and psychologists, professionals who take the Hippocratic oath to aid people and do no harm, had a hand in the torture that was extensively covered in the report.

According to a report by Bloomberg, citing the director of the Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture, Allen Keller, rectal feeding is used in emergency situations to rehydrate people, but it is almost universally understood as not being a best first, second or even third option. Additionally, Keller said that the rectal hydration practice was clearly not used solely as a desperate medical technique. “This was done not solely for therapeutic reasons but as another form of abuse or humiliation,” Keller said in the report. “Given the circumstances, this is sodomy with the intention of humiliation under the guise of medical treatment.”

The Senate report found that the CIA used rectal feeding as a means to hydrate prisoners on hunger strike, but also admitted to using it as a form of “behavior control.”

Gawande, however, points to even more specific instances where he believes there was a medical lapse in judgment made by the CIA’s medical officials.