Danish and foreign doctors have decided to let seriously wounded Afghan men die of wounds that coalition soldiers would have treated, according to Jyllands-Posten.

According the report, civilian and military Afghans, who are so badly wounded that it would have major consequences for their future civilian lives, are given pain killers and allowed to die.

Stopping treatment
“If an Afghan, for example, has serious internal bleeding or a broken back so that he would be paralysed from the neck down, we stop treatment,” says the head of Danish medical services at Kandahar Airfield, Dr. Christian Tollund.

“If it is a Danish or international soldier we continue treatment and send that person back home. In Denmark people who are confined to a wheelchair have a completely different set of options. In Afghanistan, there is no social system and in many cases no help for the wounded – so we take the decision,” he says.

Agreement
Seventy international doctors and nurses are posted to Kandahar Airfield, six of whom are Danish.

“The decision to stop the treatment of Afghans earlier than that of (international) soldiers has been taken by the doctors in consensus. We are in agreement,” Tollund says.

He refutes suggestions that the decision is in contravention of the Hippocratic oath.

“The (Danish doctors’) oath does not prescribe that we have to keep patients alive for years. We must alleviate pain, give comfort and, if possible, heal. But we heal in order to give a patient a dignified life. That is not possible in Afghanistan. If we are able to, we include the family in decisions,” Tollund says.

Intensive
There is currently a civilian Afghan in the intensive ward at Kandahar with a pelvis that is so damaged that doctors have stopped their treatment. A Danish soldier would probably have been confined to a life in a wheelchair.

The hospital is unable to provide figures on how many treatments have been abrogated.