Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the volume’s aims and themes and a summary of the existing literature. It offers a historical investigation of the roles of testimony by healthcare professionals in times of conflict and natural disaster. Writings by ancient physicians and surgeons from China, Greece and India are considered in which witnessing is not usually a key aim but rather occurs tangentially. In more recent examples, we examine how healthcare professionals have made deliberate efforts to attest to catastrophe and conflict. In this context, the importance of eyewitness testimony by doctors to events such as the Great Plague of Marseille, the Khmer Rouge in Democratic Kampuchea and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake is considered. The Shoah as a defining moment in the history of witnessing by doctors and nurses is also addressed. Testimony by healthcare professionals was often crucial in raising awareness of Nazi crimes and holding perpetrators to account. Additionally, the chapter discusses various conceptualisations of witnessing and how these intersect with testimony from a healthcare perspective.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Clinical Witness |
| Subtitle of host publication | Conflict, Catastrophe and Medical Testimony |
| Editors | Nicholas Barnett, Nicholas Chare, Dominic Williams |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
| Pages | 1-39 |
| Number of pages | 39 |
| Edition | 1st |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781040416396 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781032668352 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Sept 2025 |