Razack, Natasha

English

York University, Osgoode Hall Law School

Osgoode Hall Law JournalVolume 48, Number 2 (Summer 2010) Article 10Book Notes: Interrogations, Forced Feedings, andthe Role of Health Professionals, by RyanGoodman & Mindy Jane RosemanNatasha RazackFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohljBook NoteThis Book Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Osgoode Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in OsgoodeHall Law Journal by an authorized editor of Osgoode Digital Commons.Citation InformationRazack, Natasha. "Book Notes: Interrogations, Forced Feedings, and the Role of Health Professionals, by Ryan Goodman & MindyJane Roseman." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 48.2 (2010) : 379-380.http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol48/iss2/10379Book NoteINTERROGATIONS, FORCED FEEDINGS, AND THE ROLE OFHEALTH PROFESSIONALS, by Ryan Goodman & Mindy JaneRoseman'NATASHA RAZACKIN INTERROGA TIONS FORCED FEEDINGS, and the Role of Health Professionals,Ryan Goodman and Mindy Jane Roseman remind us that health professionalsare just as susceptible to situational factors that influence thinking and behaviouras anyone else. Through a collection of essays by renowned practitioners andscholars in human rights, bioethics, military intelligence, medicine, and psychol-ogy, this book brings attention to the gaps and conflicts between internationallaw, ethical norms, and individual behavior as they relate to health professionals'involvement in military operations, specifically their role in interrogations andforced feedings. Goodman and Roseman conclude this collection with a set ofrecommendations on how various institutions can prevent detainee abuse andhuman rights violations in the military.The first section, entitled "The Constraints of Contexts," highlights the vari-ous pressures confronted by military-based health professionals. Stephanie ErinBrewer and Jean Maria Arrigo illustrate the difficulty such workers face to main-tain the delicate balance between' their identities as healers and their roles asmilitary officers. Johnathan H. Marks discusses the extent to which health pro-fessionals have become complicit in detainee abuse, especially in the wake of 9/11.Leonard Rubenstein explains how health professions rationalize their members'complicity in military torture. He suggests that systemic changes are needed topreserve beneficence and non-maleficence as priorities.The second section, entitled "Ethical Quandaries and Policy Positions,"defines and explores the various stances on interrogation and forced feedingsamong different groups, including health professionals, the American Psychol-1. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009) 228 pages.380 (2010) 48 OSGOODE HALL LAW JOURNALogy Association (APA), and the World Medical Association. In his ethicalanalysis, Edmund Howe discusses how the health profession justifies its role inmilitary-based interrogation. Stephen Soldz uses the APA to illustrate how pro-fessional associations have used material self-interest to redefine their roles anderode their professional ethical codes to advance their professions. The Blacharand Borow essay discusses the consequences of the lack of direction given tomilitary health professionals because of no legal consensus on particular ethicalissues, like forced feeding. They recommend that as opposed to achieving legalconsensus, attention should be put towards assuring military physicians are freeto work as healers, regardless of who their patients are.In the third section of the book, entitled "Operational Guidelines," ScottAllen and Hernan Reyes describe the difficulty in achieving trust in the physi-cian-prisoner-patient relationship in detention centres. Lastly, Colonel StevenKleinman provides us with insight into his own professional experiehce as a mili-tary interrogator trainer and his stern rejection of the use of coercive measuresin interrogation. Kleinman believes that effective interrogation and human rightsare actually inseparable as opposed to oppositional factors.The actual conduct of military missions brings into contrast the human rightsnorms outlined by international and health professional ethics codes. Militarypolicies and group psychology work in concert in the military environment tocreate an "atrocity-producing situation,"2 where ordinary people, including healthprofessionals, become capable of committing atrocities because of peer pressureand socialization to atrocity. As a result, elements central to the core of healthprofessional ethical conduct, like beneficence and non-maleficence, are easilysuperseded by military agency objectives, leaving open the possibility of humanrights violations among health professionals. Goodman and Roseman's collectionof scholarly essays effectively identifies the gaps between human rights norms andmilitary operations. The essays clearly illustrate the consequences of these gapsfor human rights, military intelligence, and health professions. They provideworkable and practicable recommendations that the United States and othercountries can follow to achieve better intelligence and at the same time protectand promote human rights.2. Ibid. at 30.

Book Notes: Interrogations, Forced Feedings, and the Role of Health Professionals, by Ryan Goodman & Mindy Jane Roseman

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Book Notes: Interrogations, Forced Feedings, and the Role of Health Professionals, by Ryan Goodman & Mindy Jane Roseman

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York University, Osgoode Hall Law School