More Declassified Evidence Implicates CIA Physicians in Unethical Research

ABSTRACT

In 2010, in an article in this journal, I argued that declassified documents implicated Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) physicians in the conduct of unethical research on enhanced interrogation using detainee subjects. The focus, then as now, is upon physicians at the Office of Medical Services (OMS). The 2010 article highlighted the heavily redacted “Draft OMS Guidelines on Medical and Psychological Support to Detainee Interrogations” (the Draft). This commentary focuses upon the recently declassified final version of that document revealing further culpable evidence of unethical human subject research. The commentary locates that unethical research in historical context and the development of the Nuremberg Code. The commentary also locates enhanced interrogation in contemporary political context and considers how to hold OMS physicians accountable for the conduct of unethical human research using detainee subjects.

KEYWORDS:

• Central Intelligence Agency
• declassified documents
• detainee subjects
• enhanced interrogation
• Nuremberg Code
• unethical human subject research

Acknowledgments

I thank Stan Davis and David Leacock for reading and providing critical feedback on this commentary. I also appreciate the work of the anonymous reviewers. There are a few unnamed others who have contributed to the production of this commentary with financial, intellectual, and emotional support. I gratefully acknowledge all of the aforementioned with the understanding that errors and wrongheadedness in the commentary originate with the author.