I guess it goes against the political correctness of the liberals and their democrat party.
Posted on 07/04/2006 11:11:59 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Doctors shouldn't help put inmates to death by lethal injection or work with the legal system to ensure inmates don't feel pain when they are executed, said the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in a message to his colleagues.
"The legal system has painted itself into this corner and it is not our obligation to get it out," Dr. Orin F. Guidry, president of the 40,000-member group, wrote in a message posted Friday on the organization's Web site. Patients could lose trust in their doctors if they see them as executioners, he wrote.
Guidry said Monday he posted the statement in response to a federal judge's order last week halting executions in Missouri until the state's Department of Corrections reforms its system and finds board-certified anesthesiologists to oversee lethal injections.
The judge gave Missouri until July 15 to make sweeping changes to ensure that condemned prisoners aren't subjected to unconstitutional pain and suffering.
But doctors risk violating medical ethics if they assist, so finding willing anesthesiologists has been difficult for the state. Missouri's Corrections Department Director Larry Crawford said two days after the ruling that his office has been unable to find a single board-certified anesthesiologist who would agree to participate.
Guidry's statement may make it even more difficult to find a willing anesthesiologist, but the department will keep searching, said Wanda Seeney, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections on Monday.
While not an official policy of the organization, Guidry's statement cites the group's prior support of the American Medical Association's bar on doctors participating in executions.
He said that while putting an anesthesiologist in the death chamber may be the best way to ensure inmates cannot feel the pain of lethal drugs, courts should not expect doctors to go against their principles.
In addition, public perception of anesthesiologists could suffer if doctors help states turn prison death chambers into pseudo operating rooms, he said.
"We want patients to know that we're healers, not executioners," Guidry said from his office in New Orleans in an interview with The Associated Press. "The potential is for anesthesiologists to be caught in the middle of this and I want them to have as much information as they can."
He said his statement should not be interpreted as a position against the death penalty.
Attorneys fighting lethal injection in several states, including California, have asserted that a favored mix of drugs can cause condemned inmates extreme pain. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that inmates on death row can challenge lethal injection as a civil rights issue.
The federal government and most death-penalty states use the same three drugs to carry out lethal injections: thiopental as a sedative, pancuronium bromide to stop breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
A 2005 study published in the Lancet medical journal questioned whether states were giving enough thiopental to induce loss of consciousness and prevent pain. Researchers studied autopsy reports from four states and found that in the blood of 21 out of 49 executed prisoners there wasn't enough thiopental to bring about unconsciousness.
Guidry cited the Lancet study in his statement and recommended that anesthesiologists read up on the issue.
"My advice would be to be well informed on the subject and steer clear," he wrote.
Find another way to kill them, then. America is full of creative types who can design a good solution. Heck, make a reality show out of it.
I agree. Let's go back to the rope.
Maybe they could just pretend the execution chamber is a womb.
Problem solved.
Running Man?
What a bunch of hypocritical morons! On one hand it is okay for doctors to murder babies (big time $$s) and participate in "assisted suicide" but on the other hand it is not okay to take down a convicted criminal much more humanely than the convicts treated their victims!
Amen
Good call.
I'd also like to see "Pick Your Poison!". Let the prisoner decide how he/she wants it.
I guess it goes against the political correctness of the liberals and their democrat party.
Maybe somethings like "Let's Make a Deal" where the prisoner gets to bid on his fate. Each one of the three curtains will have a device. You can always have the option just like on Let's Make a Deal to trade your pick for the one behind curtain number three. Sometimes that may be a bad choice(old sparky, burning at stake) or sometimes it may be the big prize of life in prison.
Large Mircrwave ovens would work.
I like it. How about this. You put all the guys on death row and give them a challenge like eating worms, playing jeopardy or whatever. The last place finisher gets the axe, literally.
These liberal POS Doctors who love killing a child in the womb think they have found a smart-assed way to stop executions. BS There are plenty of ways to execute without Doctors. My own personal way would be an overdose of heroin, no way they could claim that as cruel and unusual as so many are begging to do it anyway.
But there are other ways ,Firing squads work well.
I understand your point, but we anesthesiologists have nothing to do with aborting babies. I am a board certified anesthesiologist and have NEVER done an abortion, nor given sedation for an elective abortion.
I agree wholeheartedly with the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, as do the vast majority of my colleagues. I am very much so in favor of the death penalty. But I cannot ethically be a healer on one hand, and an executioner on the other.
It is even scarier than this article suggests. The drugs that are used are STANDARD in anesthesia care. The only difference between the lethal injection on a prisoner and an anesthetic on a patient is fact that I intubate and ventilate my patient after he receives the pentothal and pancuronium (pavulon). I think it is HORRIBLE law that a judge says this is cruel and unusual as he cannot ascertain if the prisoner feels pain. I can HONESTLY say that none of my patients have ever recalled paon on waking up with the EXACT SAME DRUGS.
This is more largely a commentary on the judiciary in America. The judges believe that they are expert on all things. I would be happy to TESTIFY to my knowledge of these drugs on the human, but to actually push them on a condemned man -- that is a line NO ANESTHESIOLOGIST (IMHO) should cross.
The ASA is committed to ensuring quality anesthesia care for all patients. Our political activity is not very interesting in terms of social issues.
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