March 26, 2021
The World Medical Association (WMA) has raised an alarm over an Iran Supreme Court decision approving the amputation sentences passed on four men, saying, they will fully support physicians who refuse to participate in the inhuman actions.
The convictions have since risen to seven all of them handed down by a court in Urumiyeh.
The prisoners, convicted of robbery, are to have four fingers on their right hands completely cut off as stipulated by Iranian law. In a letter to the Iranian authorities, WMA President Dr. David Barbe reiterated the WMA’s firm opposition to these sentences, which he said purposely inflict extreme pain, irreversible disability and obliterate human dignity.
He stated that such abhorrent practices are simply unworthy of a state governed by the rule of law.
Barbe condemned the requirement under Iranian law for a physician to oversee the punishment. “This was in direct violation of the core ethical principles of the medical profession…. We are determined to fully support physicians who refuse to participate in these inhuman actions.”