In spite of ethical and legal checks to prevent HCP from participating in torture, some of them do participate and cover up for torture. Doctors may get involved in three phases of torture - the preparation, the torture itself, and the follow-up.
In the Preparation phase, prisoners receive medical examination prior to torture and the medical information can be used to design ‘effective’ torture methods. Doctors may be asked to assess how much of torture a person would be able to withstand.
In the Torture phase, the doctor may participate actively in designing, planning and implementing the torture. They could also delay or deny medical care. In some situations, doctors could revive or resuscitate persons, so that they can be tortured again.
In the Follow-up phase, doctors can play a role in providing medical care after the torture and before they are presented in a court and to the public etc.
Doctors can provide false medical or forensic reports as though the evidence of torture is actually an accident or illness that the person suffers from.
Sometimes doctors may not provide the necessary treatment (eg. missing a rupture of eardrum following blunt injury, leading to temporary or permanent loss of hearing). They may also participate in undue delays in transfer to appropriate medical care centres.
Inaccurate reporting can range from omitting crucial injuries, deliberate falsification, attributing the injury to the person or to an accident or past history or placing the blame on someone other than the actual perpetrator (like a junior prison staff or another prisoner).
On occasion, victims of torture have been returned to their interrogators after prolonged medical care in hospital.
While doctors are not always able to protect their patients from such a fate, in some cases they appear to have made no effort to protect them.
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