Like the trees at this time of year, I am waking up. My views were already becoming more extreme with age, but a string of events last autumn stirred me, and I am coming out of hibernation.
Doctors used to make a big difference. The nuclear test ban treaties of 1963 and 1996 were partly the result of lobbying by the medical profession. Reports from the Medical Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War (both now part of Medact) resulted in a 1983 report from the BMA that changed the United Kingdom’s policy on nuclear defence. The health professions have a proud history of standing up for powerless and abused people. For example, a programme on Channel 4 television in October called The Relief of Belsen showed how doctors, nurses, and medical students struggled to save life and dignity amid gross physical horror more than 60 years ago. In the 1990s we raised the profile of the issue of torture in apartheid South Africa by public censure of the doctors involved.
But now? A blockade in January 2007 by health professionals of the Faslane naval base in Scotland, where Trident nuclear missiles are held, barely made local news, and the government’s plan to renew the Trident programme went through on the nod in March. Arbitrary detention of asylum seekers, including victims of torture and rape, goes almost unheeded. As Helen Bamber, founder of Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, said in October at an Amnesty International conference in Birmingham, most asylum seekers’ applications are rejected for reasons that are ridiculous and would be truly comic were it not for the tragic consequences. They are deported to face more persecution or are condemned to live on the periphery of our society, prey to the sex industry and other abuses.
In the name of security the government is considering extending detention without charge to beyond 28 days, already longer than any other country in Europe. Have we all forgotten when it was 24 hours? For the first time in four centuries advances in human rights are being reversed. Where is security from torture, arbitrary detention, or climate change? How will we be secure from the hostility generated by our own xenophobia?
Torture is clearly back on the agenda of Western countries. The UK has argued at the European Court of Human Rights that evidence obtained from torture be accepted. Craig Murray, the sacked UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, described in Malvern in October how the Foreign and Commonwealth Office leant on him to ignore the torture of opponents to the corrupt Uzbek oligarchy. Although information from tortured people is notoriously unreliable, he was told it was nevertheless “useful” because the confessions justified our own oppressive machinery of rendition, torture, and detention without trial in “dark sites” and Guantánamo Bay. Naturally this is for our own good, our national security, and, of course, our access to oil and natural gas.
A refreshing change was a day’s education on global health issues at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in early October. A predictably small audience heard presentations from experts from Medact, the Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture, and Medical Justice on climate chaos, bird flu, nuclear power and weapons, drug patents and the drug industry, the health effects of political violence, the physical and mental ill health of torture victims, and the misery and injustice of our asylum system. Organisations such as these exemplify activism and altruism. Their members don’t wear sandals or hug trees; they are hard nosed, dedicated professionals.
I have recently been reading Fear of Freedom by the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm. He wrote presciently, in 1942, “In spite of the veneer of optimism and initiative, modern man is overcome by a profound feeling of powerlessness which makes him gaze towards approaching catastrophes as though he were paralysed.” Being a doctor was once a matter of pride, associated with a sense of power and influence; we were heavily represented in good causes, comedy, and politics. I am now ashamed of being a short sighted box ticker, bought off by government spin and money.
Surely there is more to health and welfare than quality and outcomes framework (QOF) scores, Read codes, and protocols. We are becoming bland, humourless participants in a society that is driven by targets and profit—like the grey scrubbers in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast. The medical profession once galvanised public opinion. Where is our voice now? Concern doesn’t stop at the surgery or hospital; there are plenty of vacancies for us in organisations that could make a difference. Our own self worth and freedom depend on taking action now, for, as Fromm wrote, “the self is as strong as it is active.”
Being a doctor was once a matter of pride. I am now ashamed of being a short sighted box ticker