Psychological Torture?

How big a role should mental-health experts play in military interrogations?

Military interrogators often have to play mind games with their Iraqi and Afghan prisoners in an effort to extract information. But how far should mental-health experts go in helping play those games? A report on detainee abuse, delivered to Congress on March 7 by Vice Admiral Albert Church, noted that there is "a growing trend in the global war on terror" for military psychiatrists and psychologists to take part in interrogations. Now some mental-health professionals, even within the military, are growing concerned that colleagues who have helped interrogators may have broken the first rule of medical ethics: Do no harm. The...

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