Death Penalty

Last night, the NBC show ER featured a retired prison doctor who had performed lethal injections and was now racked with guilt.  This doctor, Dr. Truman, was also dying of cancer and was spending his remaining time trying to make amends to the families of the men he had helped execute.  He jumped in a frozen lake to save the life of Gabriel, the child of one of the men he had helped put to death, and both wound up in the ER.  Despite his rescue of the child, Dr. Truman remained convinced he was going to Hell, and Gabriel's mother, at her child's side, was completely unforgiving as well. 

The overarching theme of the episode, entitled Atonement, was forgiveness:  Are there sins for which there can be no forgiveness?  Will you (should you) ultimately be judged by the worst thing you ever did?   This question certainly applies to the death penalty debate, though the twist here was that it was the executioner whose sins were being judged.  To its credit, the show did not provide a clear answer to the question "can there be atonement" though it seemed to be leaning towards a "yes" answer.  What was clear from the episode, and what we know to be indisputably true about the death penalty, is that it inflicts additional pain and suffering on everyone it touches.

Somewhat lost in the ethereal debates about forgiveness and eternal judgment was the more earthly question of medical ethics.  I was hoping one of the ER doctors would remark that participating in executions is a violation of medical ethics, but it didn't happen.  This is not entirely unrealistic, as surveys have shown that a significant percentage of doctors do not know that playing a role in executions violates AMA rules.  (In fact, almost every health profession in the US has rules against participation in executions.)

Amnesty International has been working to raise awareness about this with health professionals and the general public, through its Declaration on the Participation of Health Personnel in the Death Penalty.   You can support this effort by signing the Declaration online and/or passing it along. 

Brian