Torture And Interrogation

Is torture acceptable? Is it effective? Many Americans are asking these questions in response to the American Government recently issuing its first open admission to the use of torture in pursuit of intelligence. Torture has historically involved inflicting physical pain until the individual if willing to cooperate but in recent decades the use of psychological, or “no-touch”, torture has become the go to interrogation method when trying to persuade enemy combatants to cooperate (Welch, 2009)). Due to this “no-touch” method it is hard for human rights organizations to prosecute this new form of “interrogation” as torture. Therefore many psychologists, with the backing of the APA and US government, have faced little to no repercussions for their …show more content…
Psychologists during this time period consistently violated the ethical responsibilities outlined by the APA, including their most important responsibility as a health professional, to do no harm. One of the better-known instances of this ethical violation is the report that was released on the treatment of individuals in Abu Ghraib, a US military prison in Iraq. This report showed the public pictures of the kind of inhumane and degrading techniques that the psychologists implemented, all of which were clear violations of Principle A of the APA ethical principles. The psychologists involved in these interrogations also violated Principle E, which states that psychologist respect the dignity and worth of all people (APA.org, 2010). This ethical principle was violated over and over again every time psychologists subjected individuals to their “no-touch” methods of interrogation. This principle was also violated when medical files detailing the mental health of prisoners was shared with interrogators so that they could develop interrogation plans, a clear breach in patient-doctor confidentiality (Welch, 2009). The psychologists guilty of these ethical violations have faced zero repercussions due to the protection of the APA, who has had multiple complaints filed against their members but fail to take any action against them. The APA has not taken a clear stance on whether it approves of its members being apart of the interrogations that take place in detention centers. However, all the evidence points to them supporting the use of clinical psychologists in interrogations. One piece of glaring evidence that supports this is the fact that the APA member-run council passed a referendum that “prohibits psychologists from participation in any operation that violates the