In an unprecedented show of solidarity, over 450 doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers have signed an open letter calling on the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) to stop suspending and penalizing physicians who engage in peaceful civil disobedience to protest the unfolding climate catastrophe. The impassioned plea comes as a Bristol GP, Dr. Patrick Hart, prepares to stand trial next week on charges of criminal damage related to an August 2022 demonstration at an M25 petrol station – an action that could make him the first actively practicing doctor in Britain to be jailed for nonviolent climate activism.
The GMC, which regulates the medical profession in the UK, has already handed down multi-month suspensions to two retired GPs earlier this year for their participation in climate protests organized by groups like Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil. While not questioning the doctors’ clinical competence, the regulator’s disciplinary panels argued that their law-breaking actions undermined public confidence in the profession. But for many in the medical community, punishing physicians for peacefully standing up against a threat as dire as climate change represents a dangerous overreach.
“We Have a Moral Duty to Act”
In their letter to the GMC, the hundreds of healthcare workers contend that as frontline witnesses to the devastating health impacts of global heating and environmental destruction, doctors have an ethical obligation to sound the alarm in whatever nonviolent ways they can – even if it means having to step outside the bounds of the law.
“As health professionals, we have turned to civil disobedience as a way to effect change because billions of lives are being put at risk by rising global temperatures,” the letter states. “The GMC must show its support for those who have sacrificed their freedom in calling for the deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which are humanity’s last hope.”
Among the letter’s signatories are influential figures like former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and legendary LGBTQ+ and human rights activist Peter Tatchell. The British Medical Association has also weighed in, decrying the GMC’s suspension of one doctor as “malicious” and a “dangerous precedent.”
UN Rapporteur Challenges GMC’s “Double Punishment”
Dr. Patrick Hart’s plight has attracted attention from the highest echelons of the United Nations. The UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, Michel Forst, publicly called out the GMC for appearing to subject Hart to “double punishment” for his climate activism – first through criminal prosecution, and second through professional disciplinary action.
In a statement, Forst noted that peaceful civil disobedience has a long and storied history as a tool for advancing social justice causes, from women’s suffrage to civil rights. He urged the UK government to investigate whether Hart has faced undue persecution or harassment. The government’s tepid response was that Britain’s laws provide for “legitimate environmental protest” while stressing there is “no right to civil disobedience.”
The Duty to “First, Do No Harm”
From raging wildfires to killer heat waves to the spread of infectious diseases, the fingerprints of the climate emergency can already be seen in medical offices and hospitals worldwide. For doctors on the front lines like GP Sarah Benn, who served 32 days in prison for occupying an oil terminal last year and now faces a five-month GMC suspension, remaining a bystander to the crisis is not an option.
“As doctors we have a duty to ‘first, do no harm’ – and that means doing everything in our power to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown,” Benn told supporters at a rally. “If we truly want to safeguard the health of our patients and communities, we must be willing to put our own comfort and careers on the line.”
As Dr. Patrick Hart’s trial date approaches, all eyes will be on the GMC to see how it walks the tightrope between upholding professional standards of conduct and respecting the right – and, perhaps, the duty – of doctors to engage in conscientious activism in the face of existential threats. The regulator finds itself in an unenviable position, but with the habitability of the Earth at stake, hundreds of doctors are pleading for it to land on the right side of history.
