A national physicians organization has quietly decided to revoke the certification of any member who participates in executing a prisoner by lethal injection. Consulting, witnessing, or injecting, apparently.
The mandate from the American Board of Anesthesiologists reflects its leaders' belief that "we are healers, not executioners," board secretary Mark A. Rockoff said. Although the American Medical Association has long opposed doctor involvement, the anesthesiologists' group is the first to say it will harshly penalize a health-care worker for abetting lethal injections. The loss of certification would prevent an anesthesiologist from working in most hospitals.
About half of the 35 states performing executions, including Virginia and North Carolina, require a doctor to be present.
Do they get banned for being there?
Other states have also recruited doctors, including anesthesiologists, to play a role in executions involving lethal injections. In some jurisdictions, anesthesiologists consult prison officials on dosages. In others, they insert catheters and infuse the three-drug cocktails.
While death penalty opponents welcome the move because it raises yet more
"If I were lying there on the gurney and someone was administering a paralyzing drug ... I would want someone there who knew what they were doing," said Ty Alper, associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Law. "Just like if I was getting surgery - I wouldn't want a prison guard administering the anesthesia."