The Tortured Body: An Analysis of the Intersection Between Biomedicine and Torture in the United States
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In light of national controversies such as the Abu Ghraib scandal and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, the United States has been increasingly implicated in engaging in acts of “enhanced interrogation” under the premise of preventing national threats abroad. Scholars have frequently engaged with the issue of torture through political, legal, and moral lens, but this research seeks to understand the role that biomedicine plays in shaping the contexts in which torture of this scale shifts in response. This thesis provides an analysis of the role that biomedical knowledge and practitioners of medicine have had on the emergence of contemporary methods of torture employed by the United States post World War II, and in doing so, demonstrate that torture and biomedicine are both heavily intertwined bodies of knowledge. It aims to address this gap of knowledge through an analysis and synthesis of scholarly literature, medical reports, and government documents and placing them in conversation with the theoretical frameworks of Foucault (biopolitics) and Agamben (bare life vs. qualified life). By placing relevant biomedical literature about the human body and its susceptibility to pain within the context of US sanctioned torture, this thesis also seeks to problematize the figure of the medical professional by discussing the degree to which medical professionals utilized their expertise of the human body to inform the efficiency of the torture practices. By redefining potential perceptions of the role of medicine in addressing torture, this thesis pushes readers to recognize new crucial links between systems that could lead to novel solutions and encourage new discourse around addressing the issue of torture.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 2019 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Doan, Steven |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Garcia, Angela |
| Advisor | Sato, Kyoko |
| Advisor | Davis, Rose |
Subjects
| Subject | Torture |
|---|---|
| Subject | Biomedicine |
| Subject | Enhanced Interrogation |
| Subject | Medical Personnel |
| Subject | Prisoners of War |
| Subject | Science Technology and Society |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
| Related Publication | Miles, S. H. (2009). Oath betrayed: America's torture doctors. Berkeley: University of California Press. |
|---|---|
| Related Publication | Allen, Scott (2017). Nuremberg Betrayed: Human Experimentation and the CIA Torture Program. Rep. Physicians for Human Rights. https://phr.org/resources/nuremberg-betrayed-human-experimentation-and-the-cia-torture-program/ |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/wj670zj7358 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Doan, Steven. (2019). The Tortured Body: An Analysis of the Intersection Between Biomedicine and Torture in the United States. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Stanford University, Stanford CA.
Collection
Stanford University, Program in Science, Technology and Society, Honors Theses
View other items in this collection in SearchWorksContact information
- Contact
- stevenquocdoan@gmail.com
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