WHEN DO MEDICAL PERSONNEL PROVIDING BIOMEDICAL ENHANCEMENTS PARTICIPATE DIRECTLY IN HOSTILITIES?

I INTRODUCTION Medical personnel assigned to armed forces are non-combatant members of armed forces who are entitled to certain protections under international humanitarian law ('IHL'). Under the Geneva Conventions (1) [...]
This article explores a question which has received inadequate attention in the international humanitarian law ('IHL') literature to date: what is the status under IHL of medical personnel providing biomedical enhancements to combatants and when do they participate directly in hostilities? While earlier forms of enhancements were mainly biochemical pills, modern technologically-advanced enhancements such as cybernetic and neuro-prosthetic enhancements both require more direct involvement by medical personnel and potentially integrate the combatant and the weapon in their mode of operation and use. Such enhancements threaten to transform the status of the medical personnel providing them, calling for re-assessment of whether their provision amounts to direct participation in hostilities. The article also initiates pertinent discussion of the question of when biomedical treatment amounts to biomedical enhancement and how medical personnel and legal advisers should approach the relevant assessment.