What role should medical personnel play in giving treatment to a patient who has to die from a terminal illness or a court order? While we know the patient’s fate would be death, it has been controversial in the federal and the medical world on whether medical personnel should assist in state executions, involving lethal injections. The 8th amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, such as executing an inmate by a firing squad, hanging, or electrocution. To carry out this law, the courts require medical personnel assistance, for example in tasks like placement of intravenous lines, monitoring of consciousness, adjustment in medication timing and dosage in state executions (Gawande ). This makes execution through lethal injections
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Unfortunately, the American Medical Association has strictly declared that it is a violation against medical ethics if doctors participate in any role of state executions, which encourages many medical personnel to ignore inmates under the death penalty as potential …show more content…
Is this even possible to enforce a system where state executioners are well trained like medical personnel? The truth is even some state executioners who are trained still faced challenges of inserting an IV or administering the drug without inserting unnecessary suffering. Even upon gaining every necessary medical skills, will state executioners be willing to stay for the long term? We may exert so much resources training people like Jerry Given -and__- only to have them quit because the procedure calls for even more experiences or psychological confidences. We have yet to question how willing are these state executioners are to gain the medical expertise as one like a doctor, nurse, or anesthesiologist. All in all, we have to speak of this improved system with unrealistic optimism to satisfy both medical and federal worlds. What role should doctors play in state execution when we can not practically have an execution system without them? Our only option is to depend on medical personnel to participate in state executions to ensure inmates are not treated inhumanely. The AMA and federal protocols might not be right, but denying inmates as patients by leaving them to suffer unnecessary suffering is inhumane. The role of a doctor as a healer is also to minimize unnecessary suffering to any patients,
Unfortunately, the American Medical Association has strictly declared that it is a violation against medical ethics if doctors participate in any role of state executions, which encourages many medical personnel to ignore inmates under the death penalty as potential …show more content…
Is this even possible to enforce a system where state executioners are well trained like medical personnel? The truth is even some state executioners who are trained still faced challenges of inserting an IV or administering the drug without inserting unnecessary suffering. Even upon gaining every necessary medical skills, will state executioners be willing to stay for the long term? We may exert so much resources training people like Jerry Given -and__- only to have them quit because the procedure calls for even more experiences or psychological confidences. We have yet to question how willing are these state executioners are to gain the medical expertise as one like a doctor, nurse, or anesthesiologist. All in all, we have to speak of this improved system with unrealistic optimism to satisfy both medical and federal worlds. What role should doctors play in state execution when we can not practically have an execution system without them? Our only option is to depend on medical personnel to participate in state executions to ensure inmates are not treated inhumanely. The AMA and federal protocols might not be right, but denying inmates as patients by leaving them to suffer unnecessary suffering is inhumane. The role of a doctor as a healer is also to minimize unnecessary suffering to any patients,