Opinion
Physicians are acting properly when they participate in executions
LETTER — Posted June 11, 2007
Regarding "Physicians resist push for execution involvement" (Article, May 14): Your article regarding physician participation in executions causes me significant concern. While it may be true that in a "knee-jerk" fashion many medical organizations have declared physician participation in executions unethical, I believe that this is a childish and irrational response to the present problem.
I do believe that those who offend against the law should be punished and that our prisons should be safe, sanitary, and spartan. I do not believe that the state should be able to take a life. However, this is the law in many states.
While I encourage our medical organizations to take an active stance against capital punishment, this does not relieve us of our obligation to do everything we can to relieve the suffering of the condemned.
Executions are going to take place whether we participate or not, and to deny medical comfort to the condemned in the form of vigilant supervision of the execution process to ensure that it is conducted in the most humane way possible must surely be irresponsible, if not itself unethical.
It is exactly analogous to the case of a priest refusing to hear the condemned's confession or denying him spiritual comfort because the church opposes capital punishment. To persecute physicians who undertake the gruesome responsibility of providing comfort to the dying is outrageous.
Halsey Alan Wyatt, MD, PhD, New Orleans
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/06/11/edlt0611.htm.
