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The medical profession and international humanitarian law1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Jean Pictet
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Extract

International humanitarian law, whose purpose is to attenuate the evils of war, has been intimately bound from its earliest days to doctors and all others whose mission in life is to heal—the noblest of all professions. The fact is that this law originated from the need to make up for the deficiencies of military medical services and protect those wounded in war. Since then, the law has gone far beyond that framerwork and has extended its protection and solicitude to many other victims of conflicts and also, in peacetime, to victims of day-to-day life—sick people. An essentially medical element was the basis of the law, and continues to be a major element, referred to by some as “medical law”.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 25 , Issue 247 , August 1985 , pp. 191 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1985

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Footnotes

1

Address at the conference on «The Right to the Protection of Health» (Turin, 20–22 May 1983), under the auspices of the Institute of International Humanitarian Law of San Remo.

References

page 193 note 1 DrSoubiran, André: Napoléon et un million de morts, Paris, 1969.Google Scholar

page 202 note 1 In international terms, we may recall the principles of medical ethics embodied in the Oath of Geneva of 1948, adopted by the World Medical Association, a revised version of the Hippocratic Oath, and the International Code of Medical Ethics, which completed it. A new draft code is currently under consideration by the World Health Organization. In addition, in 1957, the ICRC, the International Committee of Military Medicine and the WHO drafted “Rules of medical ethics for wartime,” and the World Medical Association adopted “Rules to assure relief and services to the wounded and sick in times of armed conflict.”