Condemned man's last words as he died by lethal injection: "I feel my whole body burning"

[nadinbrzezinski]

179. Becuase it is not in their scope of practice

medics still work under the license of the medical director for the local county. The medical director approves what drugs medics can give in the field. The field, strangely I know, includes the death chamber. So if medics give something NOT in the approved list, they are actually freelancing. Another reason to reject that medic as a partner. I do not want a freelancer working by my side.

The few states where the medics do this, they are, by strange quirk of the law NOT working for the medical director at that moment. Some lawyers have even argiued they are practicing medicine without a license. I happen to agree by the way. Then there is the do no harm in the code of ethics that does transfer to medics.

The big exception to this are FEDERAL jails, where medics are in FEDERAL land, and not working under the license of the local EMS medical director. I do notice though that you do not want to face this little fact, the death penalty is primitive and at this point really not needed, not just on ethical grounds. It is quite cheaper to try these guys (mostly guys) where there is no death penalty involved. Death penalty cases average two million. It is also cheaper to keep them in prison than in the death row. So just on those grounds, for fiscal conservatives it should be a no brainer.

So really, the only reason we still have it is revenge. A mature legal system (which the American legal system mostly is not) is not into revenge.