FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/Sep. 13, 96 CONTACT: Tom Gradel at 312-561-1040 Professional Societies Oppose Health Care Professionals Participation in Capital Punishment Following is a joint statement for release today, Sept. 13, 1996, by:
The American Medical Association The American Nurses Association The American Public Health Association In our society, there is an implicit social contract with professionals which gives them significant freedom to control their own affairs with the understanding that they will do so in a manner which advances the well-being of those they serve. It is for this reason that professionals formulate ethical codes to guide the behavior of their members and are obliged to invoke sanctions against those of their members who violate such codes. Of all the professions, those that provide health services exercise skills that bear on the most basic human issue of all -- life and death. Their members must maintain the trust of the public by demonstrating commitment to the ethical tradition: "above all do no harm." Participation in executions contradicts the fundamental role of the health care professional as healer and comforter. It threatens the integrity of the relationship prison health care professional and their prisoner patients. Participation in executions by lethal injection is particularly troublesome. This process of ending life employs the same medical knowledge, devices, and methods used by health professionals to comfort, to heal, and to preserve life. When the health care professional serves in a execution under circumstances that mimic care, the healing purposed of health services and technology become perverted. For these reasons, participation in state executions by members of our professions is specifically proscribed by the ethical codes of the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American Nurses Association. Since these ethical codes are also integral parts of state medical, nursing and other health professional practice and licensing acts, participation in execution violates state law. Such violations undermine public trust in the commitment of health care professionals to the well-being of those they serve. We, therefore, call on state professional licensure and discipline boards to treat participation in executions as ground for active disciplinary proceedings, including license revocation. We also call upon all health care professional societies to ensure that their members know and understand that participation in an execution is a serious violation of ethical standards. Furthermore, professional societies should impose disciplinary action on those members who participate in executions. These sanctions may include, but not be limited to, expulsion from membership and reporting these violations to state licensing and discipline boards. Health care professionals who are government employees, or who have contracted with government agencies to provide services, are obligated to uphold professional ethical standards, which cannot be modified by the conditions of their employment. Government agencies should not expect or require their employees of contractors to participate in executions or to perform any other unethical acts. Our associations will support such professionals in upholding professional ethical standards and in refusing to participate in executions. Proscribed behaviors which constitute participation in executions include: prescribing or administering tranquilizers and other psychotropic agents and medications that are part of the execution procedure; monitoring vital signs on site or remotely (including monitoring electrocardiograms); attending or observing and execution as a physician or other health care professional; determining the point at which the individual has actually died; rendering the technical advice regarding execution. If the method of execution is lethal injection, the following actions by physicians and other health care professionals also constitute unethical participation in executions: selecting injection sites, starting intravenous lines as a port for a lethal injection device; prescribing, preparing, administering, or supervising injection drugs of their dosage or types; inspecting, testing or maintaining lethal injection devices; consulting with or supervising lethal injection personnel. This statement is intended to be strictly prospective in its application. As associations, we are considering and may choose to join together in the future to suggest proscription of other types of health care professional involvement in executions. Among the related issues being considered by some of us are those having to do with the role of psychiatrics and the issue of organ donation in the execution process. We stress that this statement is directed to the issue of health care professional involvement in executions as a serious violation of professional ethical standards. This statement is not intended to be a statement regarding the rightness or wrongness of capital punishment in our society. For more information contact: American Medical Association: Mark Wolfe [312/464-5970] American Nurses Association: Joan Meehan [202/651-7020] American Public Health Association: Sherry Hicks [202/789-5677]
|
