The National Academy of Medicine condemns restriction of access to health care for demonstrators in Iran
Press release from the French National Academy of Medicine
February 8, 2023*
For four months, following the death of Mrs Mahsa Amini, daily demonstrations by a significant part of the Iranian society have been violently repressed. Denounced by Franco-Iranian medical colleagues and by the international general and scientific press, this repression is associated with a restriction in access to care. Health care workers are threatened in the exercise of their profession. Doctors and nurses who take the risk of treating demonstrators face arrest, abuse, and risk their own lives with death sentences against those who have fulfilled their duty. The injured people, for fear of being arrested, no longer go to the emergency room with the risk of serious sequelae and death. In prisons, the situation is alarming: care is deliberately delayed or prematurely interrupted and prisoners are subjected to torture and sexual violence. Access to health care and freedom for health care providers in the exercise of their profession are inalienable and universal human rights.
The National Academy of Medicine strongly condemns any attack on the health care missions of health care workers. It demands that Iran authorities guarantee free access to health care for injured people and prisoners, respect the fundamental ethics of health care workers in their professional activity and decide cessation of all death sentences.
* Press release validated by the members of the Board of Directors on February 6, 2023.
