Since the Nazi concentration camps, the world has been aware that physicians occasonally aid in the torture of prisoners. In recent years there has been further evidence that this practice continues today in such natons as Turkey and Pakistan and South American nations. The cooperation of the medical community in torture has become pandemic and a valuable asset for the worlds most despotic regimes. Under the scrutiny of truth commisions, NGOs and other investigatory mechanisms, torture has evolved to leave less-detectable somatic scars while increasing in physical and psychological brutality. Doctors have helped to refine many torture techniques. Many physicians become entangled in torturing schemes without their knowledge, and are then unable to escape without suffering harm to themesleves. Whether pysicians will continue to participate in crimes against humanity is yet to be seen. For the present, however, the medical profession too frequently is involved in the perverse marriage between the art of torture and the art of healing.