Dr. Wolfe’s let­ter PUBLIC CITIZEN
November 2, 2001
Urgent: Immediate Attention

John Romine, MD
President, New Mexico State Board of Medical Examiners
2nd Floor, Lamy Bldg.
491 Old Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501

Dear Dr. Romine, 

I have learned from sev­er­al sources that Dr. Fred Pintz, the Chief Medical Officer of the State of New Mexico, has fla­grant­ly vio­lat­ed a prin­ci­ple implic­it in the New Mexico Medical Practice Act by pro­vid­ing autho­riza­tion for the acqui­si­tion and pro­vi­sion of the drugs to be used by the New Mexico Department of Corrections in the exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion of Terry Clark, sched­uled for next Tuesday, November 6th. Unless Dr. Pintz is will­ing to imme­di­ate­ly revoke his order for pro­vid­ing these drugs and ensure that the drugs are returned to the phar­ma­cy in the State Department of Health, I urge that there be an emer­gency sus­pen­sion of his license to prac­tice med­i­cine with the plan to per­ma­nent­ly revoke it.

In 1992, the American Medical Association (AMA) artic­u­lat­ed a posi­tion con­demn­ing the par­tic­i­pa­tion of physi­cians in state exe­cu­tions.^ A 1994 joint state­ment by the AMA, the American College of Physicians, the American Nurses Association and the American Public Health Association, Health Care Professional Participation in Capital Punishment: Statement from Professional Societies Regarding Disciplinary Action, rec­om­mend­ed that ​“state pro­fes­sion­al licen­sure and dis­ci­pline boards treat par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions as grounds for active dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings, includ­ing license revo­ca­tion.” The New Mexico Medical Practice Act has been inter­pret­ed to defer to the AMA’s posi­tion on this issue, and thus, Dr. Pintz’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in this planned exe­cu­tion clear­ly vio­lates the eth­i­cal and legal prin­ci­ples gov­ern­ing the Board of Medical Examiners.

Since the Medical Officer of the Department of Corrections left New Mexico sev­er­al months ago and because the com­pa­ny con­tract­ed by the state to pro­vide prison health ser­vices refused to be involved in the exe­cu­tion of Terry Clark, the Governor asked the Secretary of Health, Alex Valdez, to facil­i­tate the pro­vi­sion of the drugs for the lethal injec­tion. Valdez asked a state phar­ma­cist to obtain the drugs but the phar­ma­cist alleged­ly refused unless so ordered by a physi­cian. Thus, Dr. Pintz, the Chief Medical Officer of New Mexico, was asked to facil­i­tate the acqui­si­tion of the drugs so they could be pro­vid­ed to the Department of Corrections.

There have been 739 exe­cu­tions in the United States since 1976, includ­ing 574 by lethal injec­tion. In most, if not all cas­es, physi­cians have been involved in one or more of the activ­i­ties pro­scribed in the 1994 Joint Statement which include: .… ​“Prescribing, prepar­ing, admin­is­ter­ing or super­vis­ing injec­tion drugs .…pre­scrib­ing or admin­is­ter­ing tran­quil­iz­ers and oth­er psy­chotrop­ic agents and med­ica­tions that are part of the exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dure.… mon­i­tor­ing vital signs.…determining the point at which the indi­vid­ual has actually died.…”

Such par­tic­i­pa­tion unequiv­o­cal­ly con­tra­venes the Oath of Hippocrates as well as the AMA Code of Ethics. Unless these impor­tant codes are act­ed upon, adher­ence to them will be dan­ger­ous­ly low. The only way to accom­plish this is to revoke the license of any physi­cian who so par­tic­i­pates in any way in the exe­cu­tion of a per­son. Dr. Pintz is the first such physi­cian whose iden­ti­ty has come to my atten­tion. Unless the New Mexico Board takes imme­di­ate action to sus­pend and revoke his license if he refus­es to reverse the vio­lent course of action which he has facil­i­tat­ed, the Board will have failed in its respon­si­bil­i­ty to uphold the legal and eth­i­cal prin­ci­ples under which it must operate. 

Sincerely,
Sidney M. Wolfe, MD
Director, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group