My response to a medical point of view about Saddam....

[Guest guest]

Dear members,

After receiving a difficult message from Kinory, and having tried to reply

to him in private (message refused by his e-mail provider at the following

address :Lotsofwordz@... , though he wrote to me in

private ), I want to make my opionion clear for everybody :

I reply to you after 2 days spent in my bed for a painful acute

gastroenteritis. Absolutely unable to go from my bed to my desk and computers.

It seems to be a real epidemics in our area.

So, if I didn't let pass through the messages from moderated members, I'm really

sorry but I couldn't simply do it. You are not the only victim of that, as you

can see in some minutes.

AFA my position is concerned, it has NOTHING to do with politics or a said

primary anti-americanism. It HAS to do with medicine, with the respect due to

human beings, and particularly to the Geneva's Convention about war prisoners.

At the begining of the Iraki war, the Americans required from the whole world

media the respect of this convention, asking for hiding the faces of the

American soldiers captured by the Iraki Army, while some TV channels, including

some French private ones, had already shown the faces of these soldiers, and

they were right asking so. It's why their attitude is not acceptable. I don't

mind if the face shown 3 days ago was that of Saddam, or of anybody else : it

was the face of a war prisoner, protected by the Geneva's International

Convention.

Moreover, the example quoted by our listmate Sonja Tomaskovic, i.e. about the

soccer player Beckham and his obligation to accept his medical exams be

filmed and shown " live " on TVs, is as much interesting as the Saddam's one.

Medically speaking, all this is not acceptable and in contradiction with the

universal principle of the medical secret. Today, apparently, only the " stars of

the news " are concerned by this violation of a basic principle. Tomorrow it will

be us, every of us. So, please, even if you don't like Saddam, or Beckham,

for any reason -namely because you are convinced that they do deserve such a

behaviour, because the former was a tyran or the latter earns too much money -

please, do realize that what is happening today to these " stars " will happen

everyday to each of us in 10 years. If you are ready to accept this, this your

opinion, but it is also a problem for many of us.

I'm pretty sure that, in the depth of your heart and mind, you can't guarantee

such an attitude. We all be the next victims of it, if we don't react in time.

Please, understand that what is happening today is of the same order that what

happened in 2nd WW, whoever is the person " examined " in such conditions,

unrespectfully of the the human being's rights. We are said to belong to a more

civilized world than 70 years ago. But this is just a rumour. We are all tending

to need this kind of " images " to feel " with good reason " to do it. Don't forget

that if we acccept such a behaviour, at the scale of the planet, we do endorse

actions against the human species in less than 10 years. And then, what will you

say, when you'll see your blood exam published on line, available to your

employers/clients/neighbours, etc. ? And, please, don't tell me that it will

never happen, it's already happening !

PS : Please excuse my English, but I'm so tired today that it's more difficult

than usual for me to reply in my non native language

Have a nice night (at least, try to)

GUILLIAUMET - France

Clinical Medicine & Pharmacology - EN,SP,PT>>FR

Moderator of the Medical_Translation mailing-list for professionals

http://cgtradmed-com.ifrance.com

cgtradmed@...