Autopsy suggests South Carolina botched firing squad execution
Autopsy suggests South Carolina botched firing squad execution
www.theguardian.com
Revealed: Autopsy suggests South Carolina botched firing squad execution
64 comments
-
I am against the death penalty, it's a barbaric practice and not something a civilized country should do.
But for fucks sake, when you decide to have it, why not just heavily sedate someone first, with the help of an anesthesiologist or another medical professional?
-
Because no medical professional will do it.
It goes completely against the entire pride and ethics of that profession.
You don't put yourself through all the education required to become a physician, to then help kill people against their will.-
I don't think overdosing someone on morphine or some such anaesthetic or drug requires a medical degree.
-
Drug addicts seem to do it to themselves on accident all the fucking time. If a street junkie can do it, then I'm sure some training (that does not amount to a medical degree) would be enough.
The medical degree isn't about knowing how to knock them out. It's about knowing how to bring them back.
-
-
Met any anti-vax nurses? I guarantee you that you could find some medical professionals who would do it.
-
I don't know what's more appalling, the number of antivax nurses or the number of people who reference their antivax nurse friends as authoritative sources. They are not doctors. They are not pathologisists. They are not immunologists, biologists, chemists, neurologists, or any other relevant ologists you can think of.
I don't trust the Jiffy Lube oil change tech to diagnose my car's power loss, but I guarantee they'll have some anecdotal ideas because they "hear" about things all the time. I don't trust an experienced mechanic to give a proper statement on reliability, either, because a mechanic will only see cars when they're broken, biasing the sample.
So how do nurses become the voice of fact on this? I mean, I know why. It's confirmation bias. This is more me screaming into the void, fuckin why?
-
Oh, I hear ya. It's super frustrating. It's often presented as as weird sort of "speaking truth to power" as well. "Doctors don't know anything - my nurse friend says ...."
I think a whole lot of it comes from the fact that doctors just don't spend as much time with patients as nurses do. Nurses build a relationship with people and the doctor just swoops in for a few minutes here and there.
People trust a friend over an authority nine times out of ten. :-(
-
-
Anti-vax people don't generally hold that stance because they're evil. They're misinformed. Doctor willing to sedate a person whose about to get murdered and one that's sceptical about vaccines is not equivalent.
-
I don't know for sure if they're all anti-vax, but there are definitely some problems with the kinds of medical professionals prisons often hire
(I could swear I saw a ProPublica article within the last month about how state prison systems all across the country hire doctors who got disciplined or lost their licenses in other states but I can't seem to find it now, so here are some slightly older articles or ones that focus on specific states, but this is definitely still a current problem and not one that just happens in one state or another)
"Many state hospital, prison doctors without medical licenses" (arc)
"Disgraced doctors, unlicensed officials: Prisons face criticism over health care" (arc)
"Nearly one-third of doctors working in Wisconsin's prisons have been censured" (arc)
"When Prison Nurses Must Choose Between Guards & Patients: In dozens of cases, medical personnel in NY prisons were accused of covering up beatings — some under pressure — and rarely faced punishment." (arc)
-
Oof, yeah that tracks.
-
-
Anti-vaxxers legitimately believe that vaccines do harm. I don't think that's comparable.
-
There's way too many that get vaccinations, then turn around and spout anti-vax nonsense for the grift. Going to medical school does not just make you a pood person.
-
-
-
That sounds nice but ignores mountains of readily available evidence to the contrary. Lethal injections are performed by physicians.
-
Lethal injections are performed by physicians.
No they are not. They're usually performed by volunteers, most commonly EMTs or nurses. A lot of state protocols request that a physician be present to witness and call time of death, but even that's rare.
The code of ethics in the AMA strictly prohibits physicians from participating in executions.
"A physician must not participate in a legally authorized execution," the American Medical Association says in its Code of Medical Ethics. "When physicians participate in capital punishment, they are being utilized to intentionally inflict harm by using their medical knowledge and skills to forcibly cause death," AMA media relations manager R.J. Mills told NPR. "Physicians who participate in capital punishment take an active role as agents of the state, not as advocates for the condemned, even if their intent is to minimize suffering."
-
-
-
The cruelty is the point with these people.
-
Revenge has to be the only point, considering that it is genuinely cheaper to imprison people for life than it is to go through death row appeals and execute them, even before you include the cost of botching executions and the lawsuits that stem from that. South Carolina choosing firing squad in this case was not only because its harder to botch, but because its virtually impossible to buy the drugs for lethal injection anymore. Even when available, they cost a fortune for the state to procure
The death penalty is just to sate barbaric revenge instincts and nothing else. There is no logical point to it
-
-
with the help of an anesthesiologist or another medical professional
Usually medical professionals aren't involved because it's a violation of their oath to do no harm. So then these sadistic bumblefucks just do whatever they want.
-
Honestly, with the amount of fent over there if I was on death row I'd rather get some smuggled in than risk a botched execution. No anesthesiologist needed.
-
Any medical professional would lose their licence if they participated in any way.
-
64 comments