The Lancet Editorial: Physician Involvement in Executions Violates Medical Ethics

A May 20, 2023 edi­to­r­i­al in a lead­ing med­ical aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nal con­cludes that physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions ​“goes against the eth­i­cal foun­da­tion of the physi­cian’s role” and argues that doc­tors and med­ical asso­ci­a­tions should oppose capital punishment. 

The edi­to­r­i­al in The Lancet describes how many physi­cians cur­rent­ly par­tic­i­pate in exe­cu­tions: Doctors ​“clin­i­cal­ly assess men­tal com­pe­tence for exe­cu­tion; phys­i­cal­ly exam­ine and mon­i­tor vital signs before, dur­ing, and after exe­cu­tion; and cer­ti­fy death. In extreme cas­es, physi­cians take the role of exe­cu­tion­er and are impli­cat­ed in ille­gal organ pro­cure­ment from exe­cut­ed pris­on­ers.” The authors note that some physi­cians may par­tic­i­pate out of a desire to reduce suf­fer­ing and oth­ers may be coerced into par­tic­i­pat­ing. But The Lancet agrees with the views of the World Medical Association, American Medical Association, Physicians for Human Rights, and oth­er human rights groups that explic­it­ly oppose med­ical pro­fes­sion­als’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment because it vio­lates med­ical ethics. The Lancet con­cludes that, ​“Physician involve­ment [in exe­cu­tions] enables this con­tin­u­ing abuse of human rights and under­mines the four pil­lars of med­ical ethics — benef­i­cence, non-malef­i­cence, auton­o­my, and justice.”

The edi­to­r­i­al also broad­ly crit­i­cizes the biased appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty around the world. Citing Amnesty International’s report on the glob­al use of the death penal­ty in 2022, the edi­to­r­i­al explains, ​“exe­cu­tions fre­quent­ly cor­re­late with areas where dic­ta­to­r­i­al regimes pre­vail, often silenc­ing polit­i­cal protest and enforc­ing views on issues such as drug use and LGBTQ+ iden­ti­ties. …The death penal­ty is the most bru­tal form of struc­tur­al, state-sanc­tioned dis­crim­i­na­tion, racism, and homophobia.”