When the doctor is also the executioner

[HuckleB]

When the doctor is also the executioner

http://www.iht.com/articles/524342.html

"Dr. Sanjeeva Rao used to look after the inmates at the state prison in Jackson, Georgia, treating their high blood pressure and more serious ailments. When the state started using lethal injections in 2000, he took on another task: helping to execute them.

Rao does not administer the injections, but he monitors the process, and occasionally, he has testified, he helps out. If the prisoner's heart monitor has not flatlined after the injections meant to kill him, Rao orders up more poison.
In 2001, after a nurse spent 39 fruitless minutes stabbing needles into Jose High, a former drug addict, in search of a sound vein, Rao put in a line through his neck that allowed the deadly chemicals to flow.

Whether promoting health or hastening death, Rao refers to the prisoners in medical terms. "I always say 'a patient,'" he testified in a 2002 case filed by a death row inmate that unsuccessfully challenged lethal injections as inhumane. "That's by habit."

Doctors who participate in executions violate the most fundamental tenet of medical ethics, some critics say. But others defend these doctors, saying that lethal injections, the almost-universal form of execution in the United States, can be performed humanely only by medical professionals."

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[David Dunham]

1. Kick him out of the medical profession. Now!!

[ConservativeDemocrat]

5. So you agree with Ashcroft?

Who wants to kick any Oregon doctor who proscribe barbiturates under the Death With Dignity Act out of the medical profession?

I happen to be someone who opposes the Death Penalty, since I believe it costs more money to be absolutely certain someone is guilty than it does to simply house the disgusting murderous filth until it dies of old age.

That said, however, it seems rather silly to take your anger out on the fellow who is simply following the law in this country. There are certainly no limit to the way you can kill someone. Lethal injection seems one of the more humane.

- C.D.

p.s. Next time, try to show a bit more anger at the murderers than the people who catch and punish them.

p.p.s. Bonus question: Would killing murders exactly the way they killed their victims - say, for example some murder/rapist being slowly strangled after being raped - qualify as "cruel and unusual" punishment?

[kiahzero]

6. There's a big difference

Who wants to kick any Oregon doctor who proscribe barbiturates under the Death With Dignity Act out of the medical profession?

It's the difference between sex and rape. Consent.

[HuckleB]

9. There's also the "active participation" part.

Doctors are actively participating in executions. They cannot do anything but prescribe the medication under Oregon law.

[Cronus Protagonist]

8. What about abortionists? Same applies?

Just wondering. People who advocate your position usually also hold the position that doctors should be tried and convicted for perorming abortions.

BLAME BUSH FIRST!

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[HuckleB]

10. Hmm. I guess we'll have to go down the old "when is it human" line...

of argument.

Seems like you're playing the slippery slope card here.

Just saying.

[Voltaire99]

2. The prison state perverts everything it touches (n/t)

[HuckleB]

3. And kick.

[TahitiNut]

4. But they jail Kervorkian? When the state OWNS your life, ...

... to take or prohibit you from taking, there can be no liberty.

[mefoolonhill]

7. doctor

Isn't there a phrase about "doing no harm" in the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take?

[HuckleB]

11. The Hippocratic Oath

Hippocratic Oath -- Modern Version

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.