Where genocide, healthocide, and atrocities start, medical neutrality ends

Abstract

The medical community must play a role in ending atrocities—so say editorialists Joseph Amon and Shatha Elnakib. They reflect on the Rwandan genocide, when 800 000 to a million people were killed in 100 days (doi:10.1136/bmj.r2101).1 They challenge the notion of medical neutrality and advocate active engagement to prevent and stop genocide (doi:10.1136/bmj.r1994).2 The medical community includes professionals, leaders, and organisations—all of whom have a responsibility. Many professionals, like the public, face difficulties in understanding what “constitutes evidence of genocide” and how to intervene. Amon and Elnakib offer two concrete actions. The first is to bear witness. The second is to collaborate—with human rights organisations, legal experts, grassroots activists, and affected communities—to overcome political inertia. Medicolegal partnerships are crucial, they argue, to influence political intervention and to ensure accountability and justice. Health professionals have borne witness, and their verdict is a damning one on Israel’s actions. A landmark study from the front line, using data collected by health professionals about the injuries they observed in Gaza, paints a horrific picture (doi:10.1136/bmj-2025-087524).3 The data are imperfect—inevitably, given the circumstances—but the study …