While I'm on The Subject of Torture

Here's a web site that I think you should all read... Is Torture Ever Justified? - Science Forums

On the second page you will find this little jewel. Thanks Marat! I have put my thought in blue and parenthesis;

"I strongly suspect that torture is still commonly used today even though it is known not to be very effective at producing reliable information, and it is also well-established that other, more humane methods such as drugs and keeping people awake for long periods are more effective. The reason for continuing to use torture is pure sadism, both on the part of the governments using it and the people performing the torture, lighly covered by the cloak of its supposedly being necessary.

Since the Nazis preferred to use scopolamine over torture, and they were hardly true gentlemen in their methods, I think it must be clear by now that scopolamine is a superior device to making people talk. I have had extensive experience with versed, which usually causes patients to babble so incessantly about everything that comes to mind that it is impossible for physicians to concentrate on even the most simple surgeries. (So why use it? We have been told that sedation is necessary for the doctors convenience, now it seems that this has been yet another lie!) They also tell the most interestingly embarrassing things about themselves, their lives, their perceptions, and their desires, (OMG!) that it is difficult to look them straight in the face afterwards, (how HUMILIATING!) especially if their 'official' persona is that of a prude. So why wouldn't a harmless (harmless?) drug like versed, which leaves patients sufficiently conscious that they can respond to questions, be suitable for extracting information? It even seems better than torture since it causes patients to forget everything that has occurred while they were under its influence, so they would not know what they revealed or what their questioners knew." (Exactly what I have been saying for a long time.)

Here's another quote from the torture site. This will curl your hair. How DARE THEY do this to us?

"One of the things done in my place of work is that central line catheters are inserted into the sometimes complex vasculature of the patient. It is often necessary to obtain feedback from the patient while these catheters are being threaded in, but the procedure can be so disturbing to the patient that the patient must also be sedated. So the problem arises, how do you get reliable feedback from the patient while still sedating him?

The answer is Versed. This drug allows the patient to space out so that he isn't bothered by anything that is happening and he wakes up without remembering anything that happened. This drug often causes patients to babble away while the catheter is being inserted, since these people naturally become quite voluble. You can easily direct them to talk about one thing or the other, so you can get them to shift the topic of conversation from their first wife's bad breath to their sensation of the catheter just by asking, and they put up no resistance.

So from this, it seems that Versed is a perfect substitute for torture, though I am not aware that it has ever been tested or used for this purpose."

IF you value the privacy of your mind and thoughts and IF you feel that torture is never justified, especially the torture of an innocent patient, then you will decline the Versed. This is so horrifying I can hardly stand it. This is bad, Bad, BAD! You medical people have NO RIGHT to do this to us! Do you tell your patients ANYTHING LIKE what Marat is writing about in the informed consent portion of your job? Do you? Of course not because you LIKE it. This is sickening. This IS terrorism! All masked in a make nice package wrongly called "sedation." Shocking is too banal a word to use for this kind of behavior from our saintly medical providers! Medical personnel are terrorists, sadists and vicious interrogators. This drug Versed needs to be banned. "Versed is the perfect substitute for torture!" Except that the helpless, hapless patient is tortured as well as revealing their humiliating secrets for the entertainment of staff. All nice and legal and practiced by people who are supposed to be helping and who should know better. This is NOT acceptable at Gitmo OR in our medical centers.