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The people who try saving lives in a war zone often find themselves risking their lives to do so. Hospital and medical workers in Israel and Gaza are no exception, most notably in the wake of the Hamas rocket attack that allegedly claimed as many as 500 casualties, who are nothing more than collateral damage to the terrorists. Dr. Arthur Caplan is a professor of bioethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. He spoke on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to warn friend and foe alike that certain spaces are meant to restore life, not take it.
“These are definitely war crimes,” a cautionary Caplan told Berman and Riedel. “You can’t target hospitals, ambulances, clinics. It’s simply unethical, it’s simply wrong… I know terrorists might be hiding in a hospital. I get that. I also don’t care; if they’re hiding in a hospital, you can’t bomb it… and I’m not arguing that Israel should not be in there trying to destroy Hamas- I think they should- but if there’s casualties, everybody should know that health care sites are just off-limits.”
Caplan’s outrage also applies to treatment of domestic victims of violence, especially in the wake of Wednesday night’s mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. “This mayhem… you know who pays for all those bills? We do. They’re either uninsured and we’ve got to cover their costs, or they’re raising our premiums because they’re getting intensive care. These gun wounds are massive, so it’s costing us a fortune, and my argument is that the repeal of the 2nd Amendment is just to get a little mor sensible about not letting people who are really disturbed go out and cause all this harm.”
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