Participation of physicians in state-ordered executions has become controversial especially in the medical ethics in the US. For the last twenty years, the use of lethal injection has been the main method of execution and capital punishment. In the past executioners used were firing squads, electrocution, hanging, and gas asphyxiation in addition to lethal injection (Gawande 131-34). The lethal injection is the widely preferred method by courts as the most humane, which does not contravene the eighth amendment provisions acting against cruel death and inhumane forms of punishment. Medical knowledge is vital in the execution through lethal injections to ensure the correct effective application of the procedure. In this case, the medical skills
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Capital punishment has the negative impact on those who experience it such as the administrators of the lethal injections and the witnesses than the individual undergoing it. Involving doctors and other medical professionals will be more painful since they know that they should save life and not end it. The society is also against a doctor participating in a process that is designed to kill a human being. Numerous doctors have participated in various executions and their regulating bodies have disciplined none of them yet they violated the guiding principles. Failure to discipline the physicians who participate in the executions will encourage more to engage in the activity, which violates the ethical codes. Courts should always train their people to be competent and involve them in the executions instead of calling for the medical professionals to do it. This does not mean that they involve doctors in the role execution making but instead they should train their executioners. Although many doctors may be interested in this role the fact that it will contravene their code of ethics makes it impossible for the associations represent them to regulate their staff. It is, therefore, good for doctors not to participate in the execution of death row criminals and leave it to the state courts and
Capital punishment has the negative impact on those who experience it such as the administrators of the lethal injections and the witnesses than the individual undergoing it. Involving doctors and other medical professionals will be more painful since they know that they should save life and not end it. The society is also against a doctor participating in a process that is designed to kill a human being. Numerous doctors have participated in various executions and their regulating bodies have disciplined none of them yet they violated the guiding principles. Failure to discipline the physicians who participate in the executions will encourage more to engage in the activity, which violates the ethical codes. Courts should always train their people to be competent and involve them in the executions instead of calling for the medical professionals to do it. This does not mean that they involve doctors in the role execution making but instead they should train their executioners. Although many doctors may be interested in this role the fact that it will contravene their code of ethics makes it impossible for the associations represent them to regulate their staff. It is, therefore, good for doctors not to participate in the execution of death row criminals and leave it to the state courts and