Kentucky Governor, a Doctor, Risks License (Death Penalty)

Yahoo/Associated Press ^ | 11/18/04 | BRETT BARROUQUERE, Associated Press Writer

[andie74]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When Gov. Ernie Fletcher signed a death warrant for a convicted killer this month, he may have done more than start the clock ticking on an execution. Some say Fletcher, a doctor, may have put his medical license at risk.

American Medical Association guidelines bar doctors from taking part, directly or indirectly, in executions. And Kentucky requires doctors to follow AMA ethical guidelines.

"I think it's a clear violation," said Dr. Arthur Zitrin, an 86-year-old retired psychiatrist in New York and an outspoken death-penalty opponent. Zitrin is also challenging the license of a Georgia doctor accused of helping nurses find a vein in a condemned man for a lethal injection.

A group of doctors is seeking an opinion from the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure on whether Fletcher can sign death warrants without running the risk of having his medical license revoked. The board is not scheduled to take up the matter until at least January, and would not comment in the meantime.

On Nov. 8, Fletcher signed a death warrant for 51-year-old Thomas Clyde Bowling, convicted of shooting to death the husband-and-wife owners of a dry cleaning business outside their store in 1990. Bowling is set to die by lethal injection Nov. 30.

Fletcher's executive counsel, John Roach, said the Republican governor did not violate AMA guidelines or other ethical standards.

"By signing a death warrant, in no way is Gov. Ernie Fletcher participating in the conduct of an execution," Roach said. "Gov. Fletcher's role under the law is consistent with the roles of judges fulfilling their legal duty and jurors fulfilling their legal obligations regardless of their professions."

The AMA guidelines forbid doctors to actively take part in an execution or to take any "action which would directly cause the death of the condemned" or "which would assist, supervise or contribute" to the death of the inmate.

In a statement, Dr. Michael Goldrich, chairman of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, stopped short of saying whether the governor violated the guidelines.

Goldrich said the code prohibits any role by a doctor, passive or active, in an execution. But he also said the code "does not speak to individuals with a medical degree who no longer maintain any involvement with medicine and are engaged in activities that are outside the sphere of the medical profession."

Fletcher, 52, earned his medical degree at the University of Kentucky and was a family practitioner until he was elected to Congress in 1998. He was elected governor last year and is still licensed as a physician in Kentucky.

The Federation of State Medical Boards said it has no information on any doctors who may have been disciplined for taking part in an execution. Not all states incorporate AMA guidelines into state law. For example, it would not be illegal in California for a physician to participate in an execution, according to Candis Cohen, spokeswoman for the Medical Board of California.

According to the National Governors Association, there have been three other doctors who have been U.S. governors since the AMA guidelines took effect in 1980. But none was in the position of having to decide whether to sign a death warrant.

Dr. Otis Ray Bowen of Indiana left office in 1981 without signing a death warrant. Vermont, where Dr. Howard Dean (news - web sites) spent 12 years as governor, has no death penalty. Dr. John Kitzhaber was governor during two executions in Oregon before leaving office in 2003. But the Oregon governor does not sign an execution warrant — a judge does. Kitzhaber could have granted clemency to the condemned but chose not to.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., worked as a heart surgeon before being elected to the Senate. Frist, who supports the death penalty, had no comment on Fletcher's decision.

State Rep. Jim Wayne, a Democrat, said of the governor: "It's curious he will keep his no-new-taxes pledge but will violate his Hippocratic oath. I'm not sure how he sleeps at night with this kind of decision."

[RippleFire]

bump

[trebb]

Just a chance to slam a REPUBLICAN Governor - pure hypocrisy...

[MindBender26]

From an old reporter's perspective, this is a very stupid article.

It's the all too common "some say' article where the liberal reporter tries to create controversy that really isn't there.

"Some say" the world is flat, too!.

From a legal point of view, also, there is no issue. Private associations, even those with regulatory "standing," such as the AMA and ABA, have no power to prevent an elected official from fulfilling a mandated official duty.

This is BS.

[LRS]

Bull! Just call what governor Fletcher does, "assisted suicide". That made a hero out of "Dr." Jack Kevorkian in the eyes of guys like this 86 year old quack...

[IncPen]

Analysis, bartman?

[BartMan1]

All you need to know here is the AMA has been a reliable vessel of liberal ideas and political correctness -- it is an organization wholly in the thrall of every liberal idea that stumbles into view, and used to fancy itself a force for progressive change.

I don't think the organization has the credibilty any more to mount the kind of argument that is being pushed here -- too many of their own members would sit up and take notice if they tried it, and would promptly cancel their memberships.

One little known fact is how few physicians even belong to the AMA any more. For example,here in Illinois membership fell dramatically about 6 yrs ago when the parent organization decoupled county and state medical society membership from AMA membership. That is , it is now possible to belong to the county and state medical societies in Illinois without joining the national AMA. Many doctors took the opportunity to voice their disgust with the national organization, and let their membership lapse. It didn't help that that was about the same time that the AMA entered into a very stupid product endorsement deal with Sunbeam Corporation that embarassed many member physicians.

So I wouldn't look for this little twit psychiatrist from New York to be getting much traction with his loony ideas; the AMA front office is very much worried its going to lose more members if it strays from its central mission -- to promote the interests of its members, and to secondarily promote the advancement of medical knowledge through its educational arm.