Capital Punishment Essay - Physician Participation in the Death Penalty

Physician Participation in Administration of Death Penalty is Legitimate The question has been raised whether it is moral for a physician to participate in the administration of the death penalty. This is an issue that many professionals in the field have strong opinions about, regardless of their own personal beliefs about the death penalty in general. Physicians are traditionally practitioners of the healing arts; is using this knowledge to put someone to death a corruption of their professional ethics? In order to fully understand the issues surrounding physician participation in the death penalty, it is necessary to explore three main areas of analysis. First, we must survey the ethical justification for the death penalty. If the death penalty itself is morally unjustified, then physician participation in it is, by definition, wrong. Secondly, justification of the death penalty aside, do condemned criminals retain a right to health that the death penalty would violate? Finally, we will examine the special duties of the physician - even if the death pe nalty in general is justified, is there perhaps a subtler breach of ethical duties by inviting physician participation in the process? Ethical Justification Returning to our first sphere of inquiry, is the death penalty justified -- does it violate a prisoner's human right to health? Traditionally, two main explanations for the death penalty have been offered - deterrence and vengeance. The evidence on deterrence is doubtful at best. On the one hand, statistics do not indicate the existence of a significant deterrent effect. A United Nations committee studying capital punishment found that "the data which now exist show no correlation between the existence of capital... ...viewed as a healthy relationship. For those doctors who believe in the death penalty, there should be no sanctions for participating in a legal procedure, which they are doing for the best interests of society, and in the name of justice. Conclusion By examining the justifications behind the death penalty and the human rights criminals retain upon being convicted of a felony, we were unable to deduce any legitimate grounds upon which physicians, or any health personnel, should be excluded from participating in executions. While some physicians would argue that participation by doctors in administering the death penalty amounts to a betrayal of the very precepts of medicine, I have attempted to provide an alternate perspective on the situation. Just as no doctor should be compelled to assist in an execution, no doctor should be banned from doing so, either.