Posted by
ulsterscott on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 9:29:48 PM
The North Carolina Medical Association is having an interesting debate with the Department of Corrections over the role of doctors in executions. I believe that a court has ruled that a medical doctor must be present to ensure that the executed does not suffer needlessly. For some reason the NCMA has decided that it is unethical for medical doctors to participate in executions because this violates the first rule of medicine (i.e., first do no harm). Furthermore the NCMA is threatening to sanction any licensed physician who participates in an execution. The problem with this line of reasoning is that abortion is as surely an execution as is lethal injection for a criminal. Leaving aside the issue of guilt or innocence on either side of the birth canal, assisting in eliminating a human being is either ethical or unethical. It cannot be ethical in one case and unethical in another.