Military medical ethics: a call to regulatory and educational arms

摘要

US forces concluded combat operations in Iraq in 2007 and began a slow withdrawal of forces, which was completed in December 2011. In October 2014, British and US forces withdrew from Afghanistan, officially ending combat operations and a costly 13 year campaign. Reports of human rights violations against detainees including rape, sodomy, beatings and torture were reported early in both campaigns and continue to appear in the worldwide media. This then would seem to be an appropriate time to reflect on a topic that continues to bedevil ethicists, soldiers and health care professionals: how military medics should behave in war and conflict. Now is also a good time to raise a clarion call about military medical ethics because the nature of warfare has recently changed very rapidly and some commentators have argued that the professional, legal and ethical rules that govern how military health care professionals should act need to be updated urgently (Gross 2013).