Dual Loyalty among Military Health Professionals: Human Rights and Ethics in Times of Armed Conflict

摘要

These two quotes typify the competing worldviews brought to bear on the ethical and human rights obligations of health professionals in the armed forces. Attention has focused increasingly on the role of health professionals in abuses of detainees in military custody following revelations of gross human rights violations at the Abu Ghraib detention center in Iraq. It is important to note, however, that detainee abuse illustrates but one example, albeit particularly egregious, of a deeper problem of dual loyalty (alternatively called mixed agency) in the military. As health personnel are torn between duties to heal on the one hand and to support military objectives on the other, these tensions result in inevitable ethical and human rights consequences for both soldiers and civilians.