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Notable examination of doctors and the death penalty

By Douglas A. Berman

I just came across this SSRN posting of an interesting-looking paper titled "Doctors, Discipline, and the Death Penalty: Professional Implications of Safe Harbor Statutes."  Here is the abstract:State capital punishment statutes generally contemplate the involvement of medical providers, and courts have acknowledged that the qualifications of lethal injection personnel have a constitutionally relevant dimension.  However, the American Medical Association has consistently voiced its opposition to any medical involvement in executions.  In recent years, some states have responded to this conflict by adopting statutory mechanisms to encourage medical participation in lethal injections.  These safe harbor provisions, which prohibit state medical boards from taking disciplinary action against licensed medical personnel who choose to participate in executions, were adopted without legislative or public debate about their merits and have yet to be examined in the academic literature...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 29, 2008 (boomark / email).