Consider This...
July 21, 2006
EXECUTION ETHICS
The
Hippocratic Oath states: To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor
give advice which may cause his death.
Yet
the N.C. Medical Board gave preliminary approval today to a statement that
condones the presence of physicians in the execution chamber as long as they
don’t actively participate in the execution.
The
only problem is that the American Medical Association Code of Ethics clearly
defines observation as a form of participation.
With its statement, the N.C. Medical Board puts doctors, nurses, and
anesthesiologists in the impossible situation of having to choose between
ethics and law.
The
state cannot guarantee freedom from cruel and unusual punishment without a
physician present, and a physician cannot be present without violating the
medical code of ethics.
The
decision is just another glaring example why
.