Medical ethics bans on execution participation produced botched lethal injections causing conscious suffering

Evidence

The medical profession bans doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists from participating in executions because it violates the code of professional ethics. Therefore, technicians of varying skill have to do it. The necessary drugs are becoming almost impossible to obtain in the United States, and in some cases the imported drugs were too weak to sedate inmates, who were conscious while being paralyzed. They were gasping for air and convulsing (Lyman, 2014). In other instances, members of the intravenous teams misjudged the inmate’s level of unconsciousness, inserted the needle into muscles rather than in the vein, couldn’t find the vein, or had to deal with blocked needles (Associated Press, 2014). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1911

Categorization

• QUESTION: The irony here is profound: the ethical refusal to participate created a system more prone to cruelty. Worth exploring whether this pattern recurs elsewhere.