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State Law vs Medical Ethics

Lee Black, JD, LLM; Robert M. Sade, MD

JAMA. 2007;298(23):2779-2781.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Legal execution by lethal injection has made national headlines during the past 2 years because prisoners have argued that it poses an unnecessary risk of pain as currently performed and therefore constitutes unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. The most widely used method of lethal injection, developed by a physician,¹ involves the intravenous infusion of large doses of sodium thiopental to induce deep sleep, pancuronium bromide as a paralyzing agent, and potassium chloride for cardioplegia. Lethal injection was adopted as a means of execution because it seemed more humane than other methods, but it is unclear what consideration was given to the selection of execution personnel, the skills they needed, and the training they might require. Recent court challenges have revealed that drug dosages are not uniform among the states, so wide disparities in levels of sedation may occur, and some inmates may . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Lethal Injection and Medical Ethics

Author Affiliations: Ethics Group, American Medical Association, Chicago, Illinois (Mr Black); and Institute of Human Values in Health Care, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston (Dr Sade). Dr Sade is a former chair of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.