Death Penalty Ethics : Physician Question

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Death Penalty

  • Yes

    Votes: 34 37.8%

  • No

    Votes: 47 52.2%

  • ...Maybe

    Votes: 9 10.0%
  • Total voters
    90
X

Xypathos

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As a physician would you commence the death penalty for this individual, if it was ordered?

Here
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i'm generally opposed to the death penalty and state sanctioned murder... but in the case of such a sick individual, I have to say: fry him up!
 
I wonder how many people voted 'yes' without actually clicking the link... :laugh:
 
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Ha Ha Ha!!! That is the funniest thing!! A couple weekends ago, my sister and I went to Yellowstone and hiked up to the Morning Glory pool (the one you see in all the pictures that has tons of colors). Well, on the sign, it said not to throw anything into the pool because it clogs the drain. They had a drawing that had a bunch of trash, cans, and a teddy bear. We thought it was funny so we were making fun of the teddy bear clogging the drain. Ha Ha. This was great!!
 
wasn't there a story in the news related to this?...and the doc refused to administer the lethal injection.
 
riceman04 said:
wasn't there a story in the news related to this?...and the doc refused to administer the lethal injection.
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California put all death penalty appointments on hold right now, debating ethical concerns. They couldn't find physicians to participate.
 
notdeadyet said:
California put all death penalty appointments on hold right now, debating ethical concerns. They couldn't find physicians to participate.
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Yes, hard to find someone that wants to kill a very bad person IN CALIFORNIA

but I bet they have little trouble finding someone to kill a fetus :thumbup:
 
TexasFool said:
Yes, hard to find someone that wants to kill a very bad person

but I bet they have little trouble finding someone to kill a fetus :thumbup:
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What about a snuggly teddy bear?
 
I would say no.... mainly because there have been too many times when they convict the wrong person. I remember about this time last year they (in TX) executed a guy for murder and the eye witness (the only real evidence) later came out and he had the wrong guy.
 
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As a serious answer I would only kill a lunatic if he were coming after me or my family, but as far as death penalty, I would neither perform that nor kill a fetus.
 
TexasFool said:
and yours is not predictable and boring? :rolleyes:
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Sorry. I didn't mean to be insulting. I just find it tiring when a discussion about the death penalty gets used as a springboard to spout anti-choice politics.

But hijack away, I'm off...
 
notdeadyet said:
Sorry. I didn't mean to be insulting. I just find it tiring when a discussion about the death penalty gets used as a springboard to spout anti-choice politics.

But hijack away, I'm off...
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what anti-choice politics? I'm not for making abortion illegal, but I am critical of pro-abortion people also and especially those that would kill a fetus but not a hardened criminal.
 
Shall I make a poll on this issue?? :cool:
 
TexasFool said:
what anti-choice politics? I'm not for making abortion illegal, but I am critical of pro-abortion people also.
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Guys, seriously ... lets stay on topic.

We're talking about if the suspect in question should be sentenced to death.

Not California, child rapist, or if abortion=murder --- we have much more at hand right now, such as our suspect who has alledgedly (splg?) killed approx. 2500 individuals.
 
TexasFool said:
what anti-choice politics? I'm not for making abortion illegal, but I am critical of pro-abortion people also and especially those that would kill a fetus but not a hardened criminal.
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:thumbup: :thumbup:
yeah...not sure I understand that either
 
Xypathos said:
Guys, seriously ... lets stay on topic.

We're talking about if the suspect in question should be sentenced to death.

Not California, child rapist, or if abortion=murder --- we have much more at hand right now, such as our suspect who has alledgedly (splg?) killed approx. 2500 individuals.
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no, i say let him off with a slap on the wrist
 
I was a little surprised by the link. Are you asking if the person who caused those deaths should be given the death penalty? Regardless of who, what and the cause, I'd wouldn't participate, as a physician, in any death sentence commencement.

Primum non nocere
 
I say we go back to something more appropriate- hanging, drawing and quartering, breaking at the wheel, burning at the stake, etc. If we were to go back to the latter choice, I'd even provide the gasoline and wood. So I would have no problem with euthanizing a death row inmate, other than just feeling that it's too nice of a death.
 
TexasFool said:
what anti-choice politics? I'm not for making abortion illegal, but I am critical of pro-abortion people also and especially those that would kill a fetus but not a hardened criminal.
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you MUST be a guy. it's not pro-abortion .. its pro-choice.. and you're a scientist. it's not a fetus very very early on and abortions are generally in the first trimester. if guys had to carry around babies for nine months, im sure the laws and the views on this topic would be very different. i'm not pro-abortion.. i'm pro- a woman should have a choice what to do with her body and with something that is a part of her body.

as far as the death sentence, i think it's far harsher a punishment to have life imprisonment-- if it's in isolation, etc. BUT from what i hear prison is like a hotel with health care now... ive heard of people committing crimes because they have nowhere to live and the prison system will take care of them. prison should not be like a vacation. it's also very expensive to keep people in the prison system. then again, administering the death penalty is very expensive. i wouldn't do it, but come up with a better alternative that seems fitting to the crime.
 
That excessive cost is all the more reason to execute people faster. A .357 round costs what? $0.40? Put that through the back of a guy's skull and I'll show you someone who won't be raping, murdering or molesting anyone again.
 
DropkickMurphy said:
That excessive cost is all the more reason to execute people faster. A .357 round costs what? $0.40? Put that through the back of a guy's skull and I'll show you someone who won't be raping, murdering or molesting anyone again.
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I know I'll get a rashing of **** for this as I am interested in priesthood, but ultimately I have to agree with this.

Some people, for better or worse, can't be rehabilitated and will only continue to commit hideous acts of violence and as a society, we benefit more from quick painless deaths than spending thousands of dollars to house inmates in prisons for 60+ years.

I don't remember the study but it was commissioned by another country to see if a single shot to the head was humane, and by humane I mean relatively painless to the victim, not if it wasn't bloody. They used computer programs and in the later stage monkeys (I know, I know ... animal rights groups had a fit) and they showed that a .357 would cause so much initial damage that the victim would not even have enough time to feel the pain.

Dirty, yes ... humane, yes.
 
I wanted to be a minister at one time. But I don't let my religion get in the way of my sense of morals, ethics and justice.
 
Remiller said:
??
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I went through a period of time where I was an atheist and now I'm not that religious compared to what I used to be. Also my comment was kind of meant as a tongue in cheek joke.
 
Now, I could be wrong, but I have heard that it is more expensive to send a person to death row and execution than it would be to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives. That's apparently because of the costs associated with the defendants filing appeals, the cost of keeping the area so high security, and other such things. The way death row operates just isn't terribly practical economically... again, from what I have been told. I'm not entirely sure.

Secondly, there are a lot of racial issues surrounding the death penalty. Black men are more likely to be sentenced to death for the same crimes a white man comitted. I just don't think the system works in such a way that execution is a good way of going about things.

Now, as for the question of why some pro-choice people might be against the death penalty (and not all of us are, by the way, we aren't a hive-mind), here are my personal feelings. Don't take it as the voice of the whole pro-choice movement.

1. A conceptus has (or should have) no rights. It's life is (or should be) entirely in the hands of the person gestating it. It is not (and should not be) granted any sense of personhood other than what the mother wishes it to have. I do not think that murdering a pregnant woman should count as double murder. I do think that forced abortion (attacking a woman with the intent of ending her pregnancy) should be a crime, but not one considered murder.

2. I do not believe it is ethical to kill another for the sake of "justice." I consider that to be more like revenge. Also, unlike a conceptus (in my opinion), a death row inmate is a person and has certain rights. I think that no matter what rights they are stripped of in prison, they still should have the right to not have their death forced on them.
 
Larch said:
2. I do not believe it is ethical to kill another for the sake of "justice." I consider that to be more like revenge. Also, unlike a conceptus (in my opinion), a death row inmate is a person and has certain rights. I think that no matter what rights they are stripped of in prison, they still should have the right to not have their death forced on them.
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So did the person that the death-row inmate killed. The punishment must fit the crime and be equal to or worse than the crime committed (so as to act as a deterrent.) I'd be all for life imprisonment if the "life-imprisonment for murdering someone"-row inmate was guaranteed to suffer and be reminded of the life (or lives) that they took every minute of their incarceration. Since that is not the reality, killing them so that it can be guaranteed that they do not repeat their crime seems to be the next best thing.

RE: The cost of lifetime incarceration vs. death-row. I've seen data to support both sides of this argument; however it's not a huge factor, because although prisons are overcrowded and extremely costly, over half of the inmates are prisoners of the "war on drugs," so the cost of executing/incarcerating/whatever death-row inmates is negligible in the grand scheme of things.
 
Would I feel alright about doing the actual lethel injection myself? Probably not. I think it conflicts with the physician idea of doing no harm, and not making moral judgements on those under my care.
 
Xypathos said:
As a physician would you commence the death penalty for this individual, if it was ordered?

Here
Click to expand...

Paddington seemed to be such a well-mannered bear, quiet and never caused any trouble! Ahhh well, if convicted and sentenced for mass murder, I guess I'd administer the lethal injection, though my kid sister would valiantly try to resusciatate him in her teddy bear hospital.
 
Rafa said:
I wonder how many people voted 'yes' without actually clicking the link... :laugh:
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:laugh: What does that have to do with anything? I'm not conditionally opposed to the death penalty, I'm opposed to the death penalty.

In the case of life without parole, the government at least has the ability to let a wrongly convicted person out of prison. If the State kills him/her, that possibility is irrevocably eliminated. I would absolutely refuse to administer or formulate a lethal injection cocktail.
 
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