Profession
N.C. physicians who participate in executions subject to discipline
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 12, 2007
The North Carolina Medical Board in January became the first medical board in the nation to adopt a position statement saying that "physician participation in capital punishment is a departure from the ethics of the medical profession." The policy says it is OK for physicians to be present at an execution, as North Carolina law requires, but that "any verbal or physical activity ... that facilitates the execution may be subject to disciplinary action."
The board cited the AMA Code of Medical Ethics in support of the new policy, though the AMA ethical opinion also says a physician's mere presence in the execution chamber in his or her role as a doctor constitutes physician participation. The AMA released a statement in support of the board's proposal last summer.
The issue first came before the North Carolina board's policy committee in May 2006 after someone filed an anonymous complaint about a physician participating in the April 2006 execution of Willie Brown Jr. The complaint centered on a report that during the execution, a doctor and a nurse who routinely observe North Carolina executions used a brain-wave monitor to ensure that Brown was unconscious before officials administered paralytic and heart-stopping drugs.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/02/12/prbf0212.htm.
