Current Ethical issue essays

Current Ethical issue essays The newspaper article read, Iraq prisoner abuse detailed. At least one Iraqi prisoner died after interrogation, some were threatened with attack dogs and others were kept naked in tiny cells without running water or ventilation, according to an account written by military police sergeant who supervised a group o U.S. soldiers charged in a growing scandal over prisoner abuse in Iraq. The account of Staff Sgt. Ivan Chip Frederick portrayed a prison that spun out of control last fall as thousands of captured Iraqis poured into razor-wire confines (Honolulu Advertiser, Sunday May 2, 2004). The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of war, 75 U.N.T.S. 135, entered into force October 21, 1950. Article 13 states, Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind, which are not justified by the medical, dental, or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest. Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation, and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited (University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, May 4, 2004). What would cause a military police sergeant in the United States Armed Forces to make such an obvious breach of the Geneva Convention? I think many Americans are quick to judge, without taking all the facts into account, or for that matter ever being in a wartime situation, such as Ivan Frederick. The article in the Honolulu Advertiser stated, In some cases, as few as a dozen U.S. ...