Posted on 08/10/2006 7:47:17 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW ORLEANS - The American Psychological Association took a stand against torture Thursday but kept an existing policy saying that it's ethical for psychologists to assist in military interrogations.
Critics said the new policy, adopted at the group's convention, does not go far enough to keep its members from becoming embroiled in practices that could violate the principles of human rights.
"The ultimate question is, should psychologists participate in national security interrogations, and the answer is no," said Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights. "It's a question that other medical groups have addressed and the APA has not."
The APA adopted as policy long-standing international human rights standards for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
"The Association unequivocally condemns any involvement by psychologists in torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This APA policy applies to all psychologists in all settings," a statement released by the organization said.
An APA policy issued last year said that while psychologists should not get involved in torture or other degrading treatment, it was ethical for them to act as consultants to interrogation and information-gathering for national security purposes.
That stand troubled some members of the organization in light of reported abuses at Guantanamo Bay, in Iraq and elsewhere.
News reports have said that mental health specialists who are helping U.S. military interrogators have helped create coercive techniques, including sleep deprivation and playing on detainees' phobias, to extract information.
"There is no way for the APA to be involved in those interrogations without becoming complicit in torture," said Rubenstein, who was among the speakers at this week's convention.
The American Medical Association has adopted what many view as a stronger stand against physician involvement in prisoner interrogation, echoing a position held by the American Psychiatric Association, whose members are medical doctors. The U.S. military has indicated it will therefore favor using psychologists, who are not medical doctors and are not bound by the other groups' policies.
I'll date myself but I was thinking more along the lines of David Steinberg dancing around on the couch in a sombrero on the old Smothers Brothers Show. You had to be there. LOL!
They, on the other hand, have no problem with torturing an innocent child by encouraging their delusional belief that they are of the opposite sex and the only solution is the amputation of a healthy body part. "Why yes, little one, have a lopadicophamy, dress like Madonna and you will be cured!".
How are you going to do at Watkins Glenn this weekend? Most experts pick you or Stewart to win. I'm going with Boris or Ryan for an upset.
Got me on that one. I never remember the Smothers brothers. I do remember Laugh In. Never really understood it, however. Sanford and Son, now that was a show.
bump
Now compare that list to this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3aff48334802.htm
The UN Plan for Your Mental Health
They should have their heads examined.
They're crazy, Jim.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Send them all to al Al Qaida camp for retards.
I read somewhere that the folks on campus with the lowest average IQs tend to be in the Sociology departments...
Personally, I would have thought that the dumbest ones were from the education department.
Re: Sociologist
When I was a undergraduate, I had to attend two lectures by sociologists. In both, a fellow mathematics professor and I spent the vast majority of the lecture stifling chortles because of what passed for research and "statistics" by these two world-renowned researchers!
My B.A. is in History. To be able to have something besides ramen for dinner, I am back in school for my RN. New degree (sadly, another A.A.) new pre-reqs including Intro to Sociology.
My prof was discussing the evils of ethnocentrism, fifteen minutes later he was telling about the pratice of clitorectomies in sub-saharan (muslim) Africa. I replied, "Personally, I think that the mutilation of women is abhorrent. Is that because of my ethnocentrism, or is it because it's just plain wrong?"
He squirmed for at least ten minutes while he formulated his "non-answer."
whoops, my bad..it goes like this
"never store a threat you should have eliminated"
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