Lawyers can join doctors to remove stain on professions
(PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
H. Thomas Wells Jr., came to St. Louis earlier this week. He’s a lawyer from Birmingham, Ala., and current president of the American Bar Association, the nation’s largest professional association of lawyers.
Mr. Wells was here for an early “Law Day” speech to the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis. Law Day, ordained by Congress and held each May 1, asks the legal profession to organize celebrations of the “ideals of equality and justice under law” as well as “the cultivation of the respect for law that is so vital to the democratic way of life.”
The ideals of Law Day have been put to a special test this year — and the profession’s reputation will depend on the nature and speed of its response.
In April, the Justice Department publicly released a series of legal memoranda that make clear that senior lawyers in the department played a central role in approving brutal interrogation techniques widely believed to constitute torture.
Among the tactics for which lawyers came up with legal justifications: Depriving prisoners of sleep for as long as 11 days, forcing them into cramped boxes with insects, stripping them of clothing, slamming them into walls, waterboarding them and pouring 41-degree water over them. In a masterpiece of lawyerly hairsplitting, 40 degrees was deemed too cold.
The American Bar Association, after the revelations in 2004 of abuse in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, publicly condemned the “use of torture, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment upon persons within the custody or under the physical control of the United States government … and any endorsement or authorization of such measures by government lawyers.”
Now there is irrefutable evidence, in the form of written memos, that prominent members of the legal profession endorsed or authorized degrading treatment of the type condemned in 2004.
So now what? Mr. Wells, the ABA president, told us that the ABA “has long condemned the use of torture and called for the U.S. to adhere to treaties that prohibit its use.”
But he urged that there be “no rush to judge the lawyers who gave advice concerning the legal boundaries of permissible interrogation,” adding that “the courts, Congress and other relevant bodies should be permitted to do their work.”
The ABA and other leading bar associations are among the “relevant bodies” with work to do. They can take a lesson from the medical profession, which has begun a more progressive and emphatic response.
American Medical Association President Nancy Nielsen and Board Chair Joseph Heyman wrote to President Barack Obama on April 17 affirming that “any involvement by physicians in torture … violates core ethical obligations of the medical profession” which require “physicians to support victims of torture, to report the use of torture, and to strive to change situations in which torture is practiced.”
They pledged to work toward assuring that “all physicians are fully aware of their ethical obligations, that physicians are not put in ethically untenable positions, and that actions like those alleged do not occur under U.S. jurisdiction.”
Lawyers should do no less. Principled lawyers and doctors must work together to protect their professions from being pushed into darkness. That can begin with the ABA and AMA collaborating — to prevent professional complicity with torture.
The average attorney? Good luck because only a miracle could change such corrupted hearts. There isn’t a low that most would not stoop to for self gain and acceptance among their other rotten peers and bar members.
The whole BAR is a treasonous organization how many people are terrorized each year by their members..
Oh by the way isn’t it ironic that the date for law date is also Mayday the holiest day of Communism. I know for sure now without a doubt that these people are the spawn of satan. Every bad thing that will happen to you will come from a courthouse. Wake up and realize just who the real enemy is. The Commies are here!!!
Lawyers are given a bad name by the trial lawyers — those lawyers that liberals love. Defense lawyers, prosecutors, corporate lawyers and judges are all honest professions. Trial lawyers are scum.
Also, it is also widely believed that Obama is brilliant, when in fact he can’t form a sentence without a teleprompter. The experts in the field do not believe the techniques were on the same level as torture. Only a naive, ignorant person would equate water boarding with chopping off fingers.
Think,
So wrong you are. Most all are corrupt and most of those who have not committed an unethical act, it doesn’t take much for them to be willing to commit on no matter how ethical as long as they believe that it will be and stay covered. And 99.9999% of the time there are no consequences to face for their unethical behavior even though there are laws and supposedly consequences, but they wash one another hands. If they hold a law license most fall under this description, judges, prosecutors, etc. What planet have you been living on? But then, we must also take into consideration whom you are, one of those Obama conspirators who say that Obama isn’t a US citizen. (lol).
But the way, why do you think that trial lawyers are scum and don’t feel that that the ones discussed in this article are not unethical, immoral and lacking of conscience? That’s the problem with so many attorneys; they have chosen too many times to play the dangerous game upon themselves when they thought that they were only sacrificing another. What they have done and the reason they have acquired their bad reputation is the same reason why Catholic priests have, it is because they continuously ignored their conscience which stripped them from even having one because it has been suppressed because of all their great evil. It is a very dangerous and sad state to be in.
D. Walker,
I did forget to add another corrupt group of lawyers — politicians. Obama is a prime specimen from that corrupt group.
What I cannot stand about politicians, especially Obama, is that they have to grandstand and bloviate in order to get the most attention possible. If Obama didn’t want to use these measures during interrogation, he now has the power to stop it. There was no need to blow this up into such a frenzy. The only thing that this is accomplishing is to give our enemies a good chuckle and a bit more information about how to defeat us.
Politicians are really worthless, and I’m talking about both parties here. Rather than actually doing something, they spend all their energy making sure people know they are trying to do something. The prime example of their laziness is the passing of the stimulus bill without even reading it. It is time to get some honest people in Washington. People who will work together in spite of their political views to come up with the best solutions to problems.
“Lawyers should do no less. Principled lawyers and doctors must work together to protect their professions from being pushed into darkness. That can begin with the ABA and AMA collaborating — to prevent professional complicity with torture.”
Replace “torture” with “abortion” and watch for the collision as everyone scrambles to the opposite side.
What a cheerful group we have today.
Who has ideas on how the professions can work together to prevent government sponsored torture?
Mr. Roth. I would much rather see them work together to prevent countless rapes, robberies, murders, and diseases by throwing their weight behind the effort to convince our government to meet its constitutional duty to protect our borders from the massive invasion by tens of thousands of criminals and carriers.
Can anyone spare a little compassion for a permanently disabled victim of a drunk driver who should not even have been in this country? Or is all the compassion used up on the temporary discomfort of enemy combatants who are waging a holy war to destroy us?
The Left is outraged over ill-defined acts of so-called torture. Where is the outrage over the foreign invasion of our nation? Asking for ideas regarding serious problems is great, Mr. Roth, but the priorities of the PD are evident.
Observe Law Day by enforcing these statutes:
United States Code, Title 18, 2441: War Crimes
United States Code, Title 18, 2340A: Torture
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/may-1-2009-law-day/