Gottfried-Duane Bill to Stop Health Professional Participation in Torture

New York State has an unprecedented opportunity to lead the nation in the fight against torture by holding accountable health professionals complicit in prisoner abuse.

SUPPORT THE BILL:

Sign a petition urging the New York Legislature to pass the N.Y. Anti-Torture Bill in 2010.

Send an email or mail a letter to your New York State assembly member and senator, urging them to take advantage of this opportunity by co-sponsoring and voting for Assembly Bill A-6665-B and Senate Bill S-4495-A.

Get involved with the New York Campaign Against Torture (NYCAT).

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.

Despite proof of wrongdoing, the health professionals involved in torture still hold their professional licenses to practice. To ensure accountability for torture and to prevent such atrocities from happening again, New York State legislators have introduced Bills A. 6665-B in the Assembly and S. 4495-A in the Senate, new legislation that:

• Confirms that NY-licensed health professionals’ duty to do no harm applies to their professional relationships with all patients and under all employers;
• Reaffirms that health 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 professionals from interrogations; and
• Helps NY-licensed health professionals resist unlawful orders that could place them at risk of criminal prosecution and civil damages lawsuits.

Take Action

Learn more:

• Sponsor’s memo
• Full text of the bill
• Press release on favorable reporting by the NY State Assembly’s Higher Education Committee

New York residents:

• Send an email to your Assemblymember and State Senator, asking them to support Bill A6665-B (Assembly) and Bill S4495-A (State Senate)
• Look up your NY State Assemblymember
• Look up your NY State Senator

Organizations:

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

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS

Professional Associations

• American College of Physicians, NY Chapter
• 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

Human Rights Organizations

• 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

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