Dr Nicholl’s Letter to the US Ambassador
http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=10185
Ambassador Robert Holmes Tuttle
24 Grosvenor Square
London
W1A 1AE
Tuesday 25th October, 2005
Dear Ambassador Holmes Tuttle,
We write as concerned physicians regarding the medical attention being given to the detainees on hunger strike in Guantanamo Bay, including, according to Amnesty International, at least 6 British residents. US military spokesmen confirm that 22 hunger strikers are being force fed. The World Medical Association, in its 1975 Declaration of Tokyo on Torture and again in the 1991 Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers, specifically prohibits the use of force feeding of hunger strikers.
Fundamental to doctors’ responsibilities in attending a hunger striker is the recognition that prisoners have the same right as any other patient to refuse medical treatment. Our own government has respected this basic human and legal right even under very difficult political circumstances and allowed hunger strikers to die in Northern Ireland in the early 1980’s. Doctors (and politicians) do not have to agree with the aims of the prisoner or the steps the prisoner is taking, but they must respect the prisoner’s informed decision. Doctors breaching such guidelines should be held to account by their professional bodies, specifically Dr John Edmondson, the commander of the US naval hospital at Guantanamo.
We would urge the US government, which so far has remained silent, to intervene to ensure that those detainees currently being held in Guantanamo are being properly assessed medically by independent physicians and to ensure that techniques such as force-feeding are abandoned forthwith in accordance with internationally agreed legal and ethical standards.
Dr David Nicholl, Consultant Neurologist (and c/o Reprieve, PO Box 52742, London, EC4P 4WS Tel: 020 73534640)
in behalf of the other co-signatories (by e-mail)
Dr Steve Sturman, Consultant Neurologist [email protected]
Dr Mary-Ann Simons, Consultant Geriatrician [email protected]
Dr Deva Situnayake, Consultant Rheumatologist [email protected]
Dr Atika Kabeer, Consultant Anaesthetist & Pain Specialist [email protected]
Dr Richard Murrin, Consultant Haematologist [email protected]
all City Hospital, Birmingham (0121 554 3801)
Dr Bernadette Gregory, General Practitioner,
HM Prison, Birmingham [email protected]
Dr Tom Heafield, Consultant Neurologist,
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. [email protected]
Prof Elwyn Elias, Consultant Hepatologist,
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
(& President of British Society for Gastroenterology) [email protected]
QE Hospital 0121 472 1311
Prof Charles Warlow, Department of Clinical Neurosciences,
Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EG4 2XU
(former President of Association of British Neurologists).
Tel: +44 (0) 131 537 2082
Fax: +44 (0) 131 332 7886
Email: [email protected]
Dr Helen Lewis, Consultant Dermatologist,
Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham [email protected]
Hospital switchboard 0121 472 1311
Dr Hugh Rickards, Consultant Neuropsychiatrist,
Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham [email protected]
Hospital switchboard 0121 472 1311
Dr Peter Gooderham, Tutor,
Cardiff Law School, & Retired General Practitioner.
Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3XJ. [email protected]
Dr Martyn Carey, Consultant Neuropathologist
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham [email protected]
Hospital switchboard 0121 472 1311
Dr Jenny Vaughan, Consultant Neurologist
Charing Cross Hospital, London [email protected]
Dr. Steven C. Martin, Consultant Chemical Pathologist
West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk [email protected]
Dr Lesley Wilson, Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist.
The Poplars, Westmount, St Helier, Jersey, JE2 3LP.
Tel 01534 624832.
Dr Michael Peel,
Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
111 Isledon Road,
Islington,
London
N7 7JW
Tel 020 7697 7777
