Gottfried-Duane Bill to Help Health Professionals Prevent Torture

New York State has an unprecedented opportunity to lead the nation in the fight against torture by helping health professionals resist unethical orders of abuse and holding accountable the health professionals who are complicit in prisoner abuse.

ACT NOW: Sign a petition urging the New York Legislature to pass the bills

NEWS:

(May 2, 2012) Dr. Allen Keller and NYU Center for Health and Human Rights brought a group of 25 health professionals and medical students to advocate for the legislation in Albany, meeting with almost 30 Assembly and Senate offices. Article here from Legislative Gazette.

(January 4, 2012) The New York City Council Member Daniel Dromm has introduced a Resolution 1189-2012 to support this legislation. Residents of New York City, please reach out to your council members and tell them to pass this resolution!

THE BILLS:

Senate Bill S 6795-2011 (Sponsored by Senator Thomas Duane)
Assembly Bill A5891-2011 (Sponsored by Assemblymember Richard Gottfried)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In April 2009, the Bush administration’s “torture memos” as well as reports by the Senate Armed Services Committee and the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that doctors and psychologists have been directly involved in the design, justification, supervision and execution of torture at U.S. military and intelligence facilities. This violates state, federal and international law and professional ethics. (See here)

What is the driving philosophy of this legislation?

The NY Legislation to Help Doctors Prevent Torture, A-5891 sponsored by Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and S-6795 sponsored by Senator Tom Duane, is legislation with bi-partisan support that aims to hold healthcare professionals to one of the most basic principles of medical ethics:  do no harm.  It represents the first legislation in the country to explicitly prohibit health professionals licensed in the state from assisting in torture, interrogations, and prisoner abuse, while providing them with strong legal protection to resist any future orders or coercion to participate in such acts. Like all laws dealing with professional misconduct, this legislation would be implemented through the use of licensing fees and does not require funding from the state budget.

What does this legislation do?

• Confirms that NY-licensed health care professionals’ duty to do no harm applies to their professional relationships with all patients and under all employers
• Reaffirms that health care professionals licensed in New York are prohibited from involvement in torture or other abuse of prisoners, wherever that abuse takes place
• Removes NY-licensed health care professionals from interrogations
• Empowers NY-licensed health care professionals to resist unlawful orders that could place them at risk of criminal prosecution and civil damages lawsuits, and/or allows those professionals to safely report the orders in the aftermath

Why is this legislation necessary?

As revealed in the 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report and other official documents, health professionals helped design, monitor, and justify the use of torture on detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram airbase, included waterboarding, sensory deprivation, isolation, forced nudity, stress positions, slapping and tackling, mock executions, threatening detainee’s family, and threatening detainee with guns, guard dogs, and power drills.

Health care professionals who participate in these kinds of abhorrent acts thereby commit grave violations of their professional standards and ethics.  A doctor who oversees waterboarding or a psychologist who advises on how to break down the psyche of a prisoner has severely compromised their integrity and should not enjoy the privilege of practicing their profession in the State of New York.

The State is the appropriate venue for such legislation given that in order for U.S. health professionals to practice anywhere (domestically or internationally) they must have a State-issued License.

This legislation is necessary to protect prisoners, patients, and the professions from those health care professionals who would use their special skill and training to harm others.

LEARN MORE:

• Sponsor’s memo
• “Do No Harm” New York Times Endorsement
• The Case of Major John Leso
• PHR Report: Experiments in Torture (June 2010)
• PHR Report: Aiding Torture (August 2009)
• “Doctors of the Dark Side” Documentary
• Supporting organizations and leaders

NEW YORK RESIDENTS TAKE ACTION:

Send an email to your Assemblymember and State Senator, asking them to support the “Duane-Gottfried NY Legislation to Help Doctors Prevent Torture.”

• Look up your NY State Assemblymember
• Look up your NY State Senator

ORGANIZATIONS TAKE ACTION:

• Submit a letter in support of the legislation to [email protected] Click on the links below to see examples by current supporters.

Supporting Organizations:

Professional Associations

• American College of Physicians, NY Chapter
• American Psychoanalytic Association
• Correctional Association of NY
• NY State Society of Physician’s Assistants
• NY State Psychological Association
• NY State Nurses Association
• NY State Nurse Practitioner Association
• National Association of Social Workers, NY State Chapter
• National Lawyers Guild, New York City Chapter
• New York University Post-Doctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
• William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology
• Physicians for Social Responsibility
• National Physicians Alliance
• American Medical Student Association
• Committee of Interns and Residents
• The Legal Aid Society
• DC-37, New York City’s Largest Public Employee Union
• 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East

Human Rights Organizations

• Amnesty International
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• Physicians for Human Rights
• Human Rights Watch
• Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School
• New York Civil Liberties Union
• The Fortune Society
• Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition
• I Have A Dream Foundation, New York Metro Area
• Human Rights First
• New York State Defenders Justice Fund
• Gay Men’s Health Crisis
• Refuge Media Project

Religious Organizations

• New York Province of the Society of Jesus
• Metro New York Religious Campaign Against Torture
• The American Friends Service Committee
• Catholic Migration Office