The military officers and especially the medical personnel in the military are often faced with ethical issues. These often involve dual loyalties to their government and to their patients, who happen to be the prisoners. They face this dual loyalty majority of the time, but it is the most apparent during the time of war when they have to face their duties to the government and their duties to protect their patients’ wellbeing. According to Peter A. Clark, the author of “Medical Ethics at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib: The Problem of Dual Loyalty,” “Military medical personnel, especially in a time of war, are faced with the most ethically difficult dual loyalty of doing what is in the best interest of their patient and doing what is in the best interest of their government and fellow soldiers” (Clark 571). As he stated that many military officers and medical personnel have to deal with the dual loyalty that they hold to their government and fellow soldiers along with the loyalty to their patients. Their patients just happen to be the prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay Prison, who are known to be terrorists. Many people would think that since they are prisoners that they do not deserve the correct medical treatment, but they are still human beings. That is why it is so difficult for the medical personnel, who may seem to have no humanity, to decide whether the prisoners’ health is important or not. They are given orders from the higher authorities to ignore their rights, but when they became doctors they took an oath to protect all human beings no matter what.
when faced with their authorities' commands and the sufferign health of the prisoners, who did the doctors at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Grahib choose? did they help their patients?
ReplyDeleteWell it was tough, the article didnt really specify. But they did help their patients, but they still allowed the torturing to continue. So for the most part they choose the military to side with, as far as the articles I have read said.
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