tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604463807371446221.post104644587931909498..comments2024-03-24T02:22:29.512-07:00Comments on Lethal Injection: Physician Participation in Capital Punishmentsisselnorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10530803973645146325noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604463807371446221.post-83145072316561633612010-07-28T11:19:20.354-07:002010-07-28T11:19:20.354-07:00A friend of mine was in prison and was killed by t...A friend of mine was in prison and was killed by the legal injection. Criminals used to suffer more with the ancient methods of penalty, but with this injection is different.Viagra Online Without prescriptionhttp://www.xlpharmacy.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604463807371446221.post-3293345134524562112007-11-18T04:00:00.000-08:002007-11-18T04:00:00.000-08:00Dr Waisel wrote a provocative article on physician...Dr Waisel wrote a provocative article on physician assisted murder, but he is accepting a false premise, that capital punishment is an acceptable moral stance, and all else derives from that falsity. <BR/><BR/>He is correct in stating that there are differences between the Nazi participation in state sanctioned murder and physician assisted murder in the United States, but the similararities are also great.<BR/><BR/>It is important to separate two separate Nazi programs, although the second developed from the first. The medical dilemma created by incurable painful disease was highlighted by Joseph Goebbles' masterful motion picture "Ich klag An" and brought the question of a "merciful death" to the forefront in Nazi Germany. <BR/><BR/>The Nazi doctors took a hint at the eugenics practiced in the United States in the 1920s with forced sterilization for the mentally challenged, and went one step further, by advocating the killing of the malformed and mental midgets. Preservation of the "white race" was an American idea, and still remains. <BR/><BR/>The Nazis extended their "merciful death" program, as we know, and ended up killing millions of healthy Jews, Romani, Poles and others.(The numbers do not matter, but estimates range to about 15 million). <BR/><BR/>The killing process was medically derived, and administered by physicians-- mainly psychiatrists behind their desks at Tiergartenstrasse-4.<BR/><BR/>How does this relate to physician participation in executions? Those that are executed are in general not suffering from terminal disease but are for the most part healthy, and suffering perhaps from the chronic diseases of aging. To say that killing them kindly is good for their health is disingenuous; the net result is harm. Killing is the worst pain that a human can suffer. The object of killing is to deprive the inmate of life, and that alone is contrary to medical ethica--PRIMUM NON NOCERE---first of all do no harm.<BR/><BR/>With "doubling" as Lipton terms it, an easy change for most physicians, the thought of a physician tuning killer is repugnant, and defeats the whole reason for medicine-- to heal-- not only the good guys. It is the end result--Death--that makes all physician intervention unethical. <BR/><BR/>Add to that my belief that any capital punishment---no matter who the killer might be-- offends, and the reasoning takes a different path. The moral imperative-- thou shalt not kill--- or substitute murder for kill as some Fundamentalists argue-- trumps all its ands and buts; an execution is the most premeditated, deliberate killing there is, and as Camus stated, the cruelest possible murder there is. <BR/><BR/>The pressures on the Nazi doctors to participate actively in murder was great. Few like Mengele actually enjoyed killing, but few lake Hans Juergen Moench refused, and was able to survive, while Hans LaMotte could not accept the killer role and killed himself .<BR/><BR/>The legislature backed itself into a corner, with a veritable catch 22; the only ones able to "do the job" are physicians, and they won't---that is unless a new specialty--Thanatology-- is created, for doctors who specialize in killing---either state sponsored or assisted suicide. These folks-- dressed in black scrub suits and halloo'ween masks to disguise their identity, can wear skulls as an insignia on the scrub suit, and would be shunned by other physicians. They would forfeit the right to treat patients, and if the number of executions increase, they can make killing a successful practice, HE WOULD NOT BE A MEDICAL DOCTOR! <BR/><BR/>The whole discussion is moot---doctors do not kill--they heal. When they can't heal, we alleviate pain, organic or psychological. In this sense, killing does not alleviate pain.<BR/><BR/>Take away the death penalty, and the discission becomes moot.<BR/><BR/>G M Larkin MD<BR/>Charlotte NCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com