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.

ACT NOW: Sign a petition urging the New York Legislature to pass the N.Y. Anti-Torture Bill in 2012

NEWS:  Read the New York Times Endorsement of the Bill

UPDATE: Top Medical Professionals Support NYS Anti-Torture Bill, Nation’s First

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 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
• Supporting organizations and leaders

New York residents:

Send an email to your Assemblymember and State Senator, asking them to support the “NY Anti-Torture Legislation.”

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

Organizations:

• 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
• 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
• 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

• 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

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