Washington prison doctor quits over death penalty

[uppityperson]

Source: SeattleTimes

The state Department of Corrections' top medical officer has resigned, saying that the use of agency staff members to prepare for an execution is unethical.

Dr. Marc Stern, who lives in Olympia, said the American Medical Association and Society of Correctional Physicians oppose physician involvement in executions, "and they say physicians should not supervise somebody who is involved in executions."

"The only way out we found was for me to recuse myself, and the only way I could recuse myself was to resign," he said. The agency had been set to execute Darold Ray Stenson, convicted of murder, this month. The execution has been postponed.

Stern said he supervised about 700 people in prisons and other corrections facilities statewide. He said at least one of the people he supervised had been involved in execution preparations at Walla Walla State Penitentiary.

He told his superiors that he objected to his division's involvement, but no solution was found, he said. Scott Blonien, assistant secretary of the department, characterized Stern's objections as more individual than professional.

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The American Medical Association says physicians shouldn't take part in "an action which would assist, supervise, or contribute to the ability of another individual to directly cause the death of the condemned."

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008556311_webexecution24.html

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Good for him.

[sandnsea]

1. So you can refuse to sell birth control

but you can't refuse to kill somebody.

:crazy:

[47of74]

3. Hypocrisy is sickening

The same people who get all sanctimonious about how health care professional must have the right to refuse to do abortions or dispense birth control are the same ones who get all mad that this doctor won't help them put someone to death.

[awoke_in_2003]

4. Only the fetus

has the right to life. Once you pop out of the womb, you are on your own.

[rug]

8. That regulation would have protected his job.

[marshall]

2. Participation in a death penalty prep is voluntary

No one including staff physicians are forced to be involved in a death penalty case. I admire Stern for his sticking by his principles, but the underling who was involved did it on her or his own choice.

[kenichol]

5. I, too, admire Stern. nt

[bitchkitty]

6. Good for him.

He sounds like a real physician, one who probably talked to his patients.

I don't think I could assist in an execution, no matter how bad the man being executed. I just couldn't. I mean, wouldn't that make us more like them?

[Thothmes]

7. Maybe they have changed, but up until a couple of years ago

Washington State still used hanging as the means of execution.

[bornskeptic]

9. The condemned person has a choice of hanging or lethal injection.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in Washington in 1975 two executions have been performed using each method.