Various medical protocols — notably, the World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo in 1975 — prohibit all three of these forms of medical complicity in torture. Moreover, the Hippocratic Oath declares, "I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing."

....American doctors at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere have undoubtedly been
aware of their medical responsibility to document injuries and raise
questions about their possible source in abuse. But those doctors and
other medical personnel were part of a command structure that
permitted, encouraged, and sometimes orchestrated torture to a degree
that it became the norm — with which they were expected to comply — in
the immediate prison environment.

....To understand the full scope of American torture and abuse at Abu
Ghraib and other prisons, we need to look more closely at the behavior
of doctors and other medical personnel, as well as at the pressures
created by the war in Iraq that produced this behavior. It is possible
that some doctors, nurses, or medics took steps, of which we are not
yet aware, to oppose the torture. It is certain that many more did not.
But all those involved could nonetheless reveal, in valuable medical
detail, much of what actually took place. By speaking out, they would
take an important step toward reclaiming their role as healers.

Read the whole thing. [hat tip to Carl at The Nation.]