Doctors of Death?

Exploring the Medical Ethical Issues of Capital Punishment

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

April 9, 2008

The continued practice of capital punishment raises a plethora of ethical issues. In January 2007, the North Carolina Medical Board adopted a new policy threatening to punish any doctor who takes an active role in an execution, stating that participation violated a doctor’s oath to do no harm.  This ethics policy clashed with state law which requires a doctor to be present during a lethal injection, and federal law which demands that a doctor oversee the process of putting an inmate to death. Consequently, prison officials sued the Medical Board after doctors refused to participate in executions for fear of being disciplined. In September 2007, Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens said state law does not grant the medical board the right to prohibit doctors from assisting in executions and that the North Carolina Medical Board exceeded its authority by threatening to punish physicians for participating in executions.  The NC Medical Board is now in the process of appealing that ruling.

Our panelists will explore the intersections of law, ethics, and the authority of the state and professional associations as it involves the role of doctors in capital execution. Beyond statutes and legality, ethical questions abound. If it is ethical for doctors to participate in executions, what role(s) should they play? What medical methods are ethically permitted in executions? To what degree should a doctor's personal ethical views play a role? If a doctor's personal views are more flexible than her professional obligations, which set of views should take precedence? Should a medical school education include instruction on how to participate in an execution? If a doctor can legally and ethically participate in an execution, to what extent should she have discretion as to how the execution proceeds? Should it be the case that doctors can be ordered to participate in executions? If so, what should happen to doctors who refuse to participate?

The resulting dialogue will promote a deeper understanding of the ethical issues surrounding capital punishment and encourage rigorous discussion of its use in the state system and the country.

This event is coordinated in conjunction with UNC’s first year student summer reading book selection, "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions," by Sister Helen Prejean. For a  further listing of capital punishment related events  across campus this year, please visit: www.carolinacreativecampus.org.

Sponsored by the Parr Center for Ethics, the Department of Social Medicine and Difficult Dialogues. This event is free and open to the public.

Location: Coker Hall Auditorium (Room 201), 4:00 pm.

Opening Presentations:

A slide presentation on the detailed mechanics of how the lethal injection procedure is conducted, by Dr. Mark Heath.

A summary on the current status of capital punishment legislation and litigation in North Carolina and the U.S., by Bradley MacLean.

Panelists are:

Bradley MacLean, Assistant Director of The Tennessee Justice Project.

Paul Stam, Minority Leader, North Carolina House of Representatives.

Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist from Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and noted expert on lethal injection.

Elizabeth Kanof, Immediate Past President of the North Carolina Medical Board and President of the North Carolina Medical Society.

Andrew Courtwright, Graduate Student in Philosophy and Medicine.

Moderator:

Douglas MacLean, UNC Professor of Philosophy.