The Doctor Will See You Now

("Why It's O.K. for Doctors to Participate in Executions")

The doctor will see you now.

So a physician who opposes capital punishment argues for the morality of doctors rendering the most effective care in killing the prisoner. Excuse me if I clear the trees so the author of this oped can see the forest.

There is nothing humane in capital punishment. Not the concept of it and not the execution of the execution. Don't pretend that you are doing a public service here. This is not Habitat for Humanity but the intentional taking of a life.

While it may assuage some sense of collective guilt, there is no justification in participating in an abhorrent practice which virtually the entire world has abandoned as barbaric. This is not about doctors, or EMT's, or taking some guy off the street. It is about giving sanction to this event by playing a role in it's progress.

It is like our President becoming apoplectic over the sight of children dying from the effects of sarin gas, but turning a blind eye to their slaughter by more conventional, acceptable methods. If killing is unjustified, it's method matters not.

So let this doctor go about doing what he is supposed to, healing the sick and giving care and comfort to those in need. And stop pretending that participating in an abomination can somehow be perceived as a laudable undertaking.