Military Health Care Personnel’s Moral Stance on War: Medical Neutrality and Humanity

This chapter focusses on the moral value humanity underlying the principle of medical neutrality (also referred to as political neutrality). Should it be considered an obligation, as being unconditional and in that sense, an absolute moral value? It seems that both the absolute and the relative are at play here. The contradictory logic in humanity appears similar to the paradox Jacques Derrida identified within the concept of forgiveness. There is the unconditional value of humanity, like charity, to provide medical care to those in need. At the same time, there is the pragmatic imperative of historical, legal or political conditions which demand the opposite (taking sides). These two remain irreducible: medical action thus has to be related to a moment of unconditionality to avoid being reduced to a strategic, political or economic calculation. On the other hand, such unconditionality can hardly be permitted in operational practice, as decisions would be deduced from incontestable ethical precepts or principles. It requires respect for both extremes. Military health care personnel are thus continually confronted with immensely difficult decisions: whether to judge, or condemn, who to deem innocent and where to show humanity and treat the sick and wounded.