Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 19:41:14 -0500 Choose your doctors CAREFULLY ========================= From: Graeme Bacque Sent: Monday, October 23, 2000 2:07 PM Monday, October 23, 2000 U.S. doctors like helping execute people, survey shows CHICAGO (AP) - The majority of U.S. doctors approve of allowing physicians to participate in executions, even though it violates medical ethics, a new study found. Of 482 doctors surveyed, a majority said they approved of at least one execution-related action opposed by organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, the study said. When asked about specific duties, 43 per cent said it's all right for doctors to inject condemned prisoners with lethal drugs and 74 per cent said it's OK for doctors to pronounce the executed person dead - a task in which doctors might have to tell an executioner more drugs are needed to complete the job. Opponents, including the study's leading author, said both actions violate the Hippocratic oath to do no harm. The findings appear in the Oct. 23 issue of the AMA's Archives of Internal Medicine. Doctors were randomly selected to receive the mail survey, sent to 1,000 doctors across the country in 1998. "We are troubled by the number of respondents who approved of professional involvement in many aspects of lethal injection executions," wrote the authors, led by Dr. Neil Farber of Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del. "No matter what physicians think about the death penalty itself, long traditions in medical ethics disallow killing by physicians," the authors wrote. Still, Farber noted, 28 states require or permit doctors to be involved in executions. Dr. Herbert Rakatansky, chairman of the AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, said the findings are troubling. "It is wrong for doctors to use their medical knowledge and judgment to kill people in any circumstance - certainly not at the behest of the state," Rakatansky said. He said AMA policy has been well-publicized and is available on the Web. The American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, the country's largest medical-specialist society, also believes it is unethical for doctors to participate in executions. Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, a member of the ACP-ASIM's ethics and human-rights committee, said "making positions of the organizations more widely known might help," and could prompt a debate that would show proponents have a weaker moral argument. Committee member and medical ethicist Dr. Jay Jacobson said if doctors violate guidelines, they could potentially face sanctions including loss of membership. Membership to medical societies is not required of doctors, however. Though proponents of allowing doctors to have a role in executions weren't asked to explain their responses, other reports have suggested some think prisoners suffer less when a doctor is involved or doctors "feel they have a duty to society to participate," Farber said. Doctors surveyed were aged 50 on average, largely male, white and married. Most said they favour the death penalty in at least some circumstances. When asked about physician-assisted suicide, respondents were fairly evenly split, with 20 per cent unsure. Those who favoured allowing doctors to help patients end their lives also were more likely to condone involvement in executions. Doctors weren't asked whether they were members of a medical society or if they would participate in executions themselves. The authors noted in euthanasia studies, far more doctors say they approve than would actually perform an assisted suicide. The study was funded by a grant from Christiana Care Health Systems, a large, private non-profit health care provider serving the mid-Atlantic region. Farber said the responses likely are representative of doctors across the country. © The Canadian Press, 2000 eGroups Sponsor Stop the execution! New trial for Mumia! Youth & Students for Mumia http://www.mumia2000.org