Doctors and medical ethicist discuss whether doctors should participate in capital punishment

Should doctors be involved in the state-ordered administration of capital punishment? In the September issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, three anesthesiologists and a medical ethicist take an in-depth look at this question in a commentary and two editorials.

None of these articles debate whether capital punishment is justifiable. Instead, the authors explore the current position of the American Medical Association (AMA), which prohibits physician participation in legally authorized executions. Here are a few highlights of the arguments presented in these articles.

In a commentary article, David Waisel, M.D., an anesthesiologist practicing at Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, asserts that it is time to reassess the AMA’s position on this issue and allow doctors to participate in state-mandated executions to help provide the condemned a more humane path to death. Dr. Waisel cites numerous details about the technical problems associated with lethal injection, the form of capital punishment most commonly used in the United States today. Dr. Waisel reasons that doctors, possess the skills to administer the medications used in lethal injections in a manner that prevents undue suffering.

“If state administration of capital punishment is legal and ongoing, humane methods of execution should be sought and applied. It is honorable for physicians to minimize the harm to these condemned individuals and organized medicine has an obligation to permit physician participation in legal execution,” he writes.

Two editorials that follow Dr. Waisel’s commentary arrive at the opposite conclusion. In one editorial, William Lanier, M.D., editor in chief, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, and Keith Berge, M.D., who are anesthesiologists at Mayo Clinic applaud Dr. Waisel for “bringing forward this emotional issue so that it can be pondered and discussed by a broad audience.” But the authors oppose doctors’ participation in capital punishment, arguing that the Hippocratic oath that guides doctors prohibits medical professionals from assisting in executions.

“In the case of capital punishment, we believe that whatever theoretical good might emerge from a successful and well-executed judicial killing, there is certainly harm in causing the death of a person under a physician’s care,” say Drs. Lanier and Berge.

Drs. Lanier and Berge propose replacing the anesthesia-related drugs currently used in lethal injections with personnel and tools that are “clearly distinguished from representing medical care.”

In a second editorial, Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, also argues against the participation of doctors in execution. Dr. Caplan asserts that a doctor does not have a duty to alleviate the suffering of a condemned person unless that prisoner has a previous medical relationship with that doctor.

“It seems a bit late for physicians to step forward in the context of an execution and say they are motivated by a duty of mercy given that many prisoners suffer miserably because of the poor state of prison-based medicine,” says Dr. Caplan.

Dr. Caplan also suggests that involving doctors in capital punishment may affect the overall moral standing accorded the practice of execution because “physician prestige and the respect afforded medicine are in part transferred to executions when physicians are involved.”

Dr. Caplan asserts that physicians are not needed to serve as executioners using lethal injection because “… governments and societies committed to execution using this technique can achieve this goal by properly training executioners.”

Source: Mayo Clinic

Related stories:

Therapy helps hard-to-transplant get a new kidney
(AP) -- Nearly one in three patients who need a kidney transplant may never get one because their bodies are abnormally primed to attack a donated organ. Now doctors are trying new ways to outwit the immune system and save more of those so-called "highly sensitized" patients - often with kidneys donated by living donors, considered the optimal kind.
Gene-testing startup's study responds to critics
(AP) -- A Silicon Valley gene-testing startup is responding to criticism that the tests could spur bad health-care choices by teaming up for a broad study of how the results affect behavior.
3 share Nobel prize for work on AIDS and cancer
(AP) -- Three European scientists shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for separate discoveries of viruses that cause AIDS and cervical cancer, breakthroughs that helped doctors fight the deadly diseases.
Thousands flock in Bangladesh to see 15.2 kg baby
Parents of a 15.2 kilogramme (33.5 pounds) baby born in southern Bangladesh were forced to hide their newborn this week after thousands of villagers flocked to see the infant, doctors said Friday.
Flu shot does not reduce risk of death
The widely-held perception that the influenza vaccination reduces overall mortality risk in the elderly does not withstand careful scrutiny, according to researchers in Alberta. The vaccine does confer protection against specific strains of influenza, but its overall benefit appears to have been exaggerated by a number of observational studies that found a very large reduction in all-cause mortality among elderly patients who had been vaccinated.
New TB test means quicker and easier diagnosis for patients
A new blood test could enable doctors to rule out tuberculosis (TB) infection within days rather than weeks, according to a new study published this week in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
A revolution in the monitoring of unborn babies
New technology, the size of a mobile phone, which could save the life of an unborn child, has been developed by scientists from The University of Nottingham. The device monitors the baby’s heart for signs of potential danger. It is small and easy to use so that mother’s-to-be can keep a regular check on their baby’s heart beat without having to go into hospital and be attached to a machine. No other technology allows them to do this.
'Shape-Memory' Materials May Soon Aid Orthopedic Surgery
An early stage medical-materials company based at the Georgia Institute of Technology is developing devices that may soon improve the treatment of human orthopedic conditions.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news