The Ethics of Medical Participation in Capital Punishment by Intravenous Drug Injection

Abstract

Four states have now passed legislation that adopts a new method of capital punishment — death by drug injection. The method entails injection of a lethal dose of a drug prepared for that purpose and administered and monitored by medically trained personnel. The growing adoption of these programs raises serious ethical issues for American physicians about their continued and expanded participation in state-ordered execution of human beings for crimes.The New LawsOklahoma and Texas became the first states to mandate the new system with laws passed almost simultaneously in the spring of 1977. Oklahoma's law provides that the death . . .