What role, if any, should doctors have in executions? That’s the focus of an editorial in this week’s NEJM by Gregory D. Curfman, Stephen Morrissey and Jeffrey M. Drazen that looks ahead to a decision in the Supreme Court case Baze v. Rees. They contend that lethal injection has led to the medicalization of executions — and medical professionals have been drafted to lend the event “apparent moral legitimacy.” The authors conclude:

We are concerned that, regardless of its decision in Baze v. Rees, the Court may include language in its opinion that will turn again to the medical profession to legitimize a form of lethal injection that, meeting an appropriate constitutional standard, will not be considered “cruel and unusual punishment.” On the surface, lethal injection is a deceptively simple procedure, but its practical application has been fraught with numerous technical difficulties. Without the involvement of physicians and other medical professionals with special training in the use of anesthetic drugs and related agents, it is unlikely that lethal injection will ever meet a constitutional standard of decency. But do we as a society want the nation’s physicians to do this? We believe not.

Physicians and other health care providers should not be involved in capital punishment, even in an advisory capacity. A profession dedicated to healing the sick has no place in the process of execution. On January 7 in oral arguments in Baze v. Rees, the justices asked many important and thoughtful questions about a potential role for physicians and other health care professionals in executions. In their fuller examination of Baze v. Rees, the justices should not presume that the medical profession will be available to assist in the taking of human lives. We believe that, like the anesthesiologists in the Morales case, all responsible members of the medical profession, when asked to assist in a state-ordered execution, will remember the Hippocratic Oath and refuse to participate. The future of capital punishment in the United States will be up to the justices, but the involvement of physicians in executions will be up to the medical profession.

-Greg Dahlmann

Earlier on blog.bioethics.net:
+ Is lethal injection cruel and unusual punishment?