Prescription: Take Some of This, and Die

In an LA Times piece entitled 'Doctor, Reread Your Oath', Arthur Zitrin of NYU describes the situation in Kentucky, where Governor Ernest Fletcher signed a death warrant for a likely insane convicted murderer named Thomas Clyde Bowling. He writes:

Fletcher, by signing the death warrant, violated not only the AMA code but Kentucky law as well (KRS 431.220), which echoes the code: No physician shall be involved in the conduct of an execution except to certify cause of death provided that the condemned is declared dead by another person.

In March 1994, the American College of Physicians, the AMA, the American Nursing Assn. and the American Public Health Assn. issued a joint statement calling for state licensure and discipline boards to treat participation in executions as grounds for disciplinary proceedings. The organizations wrote that participation in state executions contradicted the fundamental role of the healthcare professional as a healer and comforter.

The state - and the Governor of Kentucky's own lawyers - argue that the Governor is not acting as a physician, and thus does not have the obligation to comply with his profession's mandates in that capacity. Writes Zitrin: "If Fletcher wanted to forgo that obligation, he should have surrendered his license when he was elected."