Tuesday, February 21, 2006
California Can't Find Someone to Pull the Plug
CNN reports that anesthesiologists refused to play a role in executing California convicted murderer, Michael Angelo Morales.
Citing ethical concerns, two doctors refused to participate in the lethal injection. One of the drugs used in the deadly cocktail contains Pavulon, which is banned from use in animals "because it's supposedly painful."
[D]efense lawyers are saying, "Look, if you can't use it against animals, you can't use it against a human being."Earlier, a District court judge ruled the state could go forward, but issued an order that "an anesthesiologist [had] to be there to make sure there's no prolonged suffering."
The good doctors object because if the guy is suffering, they would have to step in, revive the poor sap, and then whack him with another dose.
[T]he anesthesiologists said, "You know, we will participate, just monitoring his death, but we are not going to revive someone. We are not going to be part of a medical procedure that's a violation of the Hippocratic oath."The state is now planning to execute Morales just using one drug. But as CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said, "[Y]ou know, it's [alot] harder than you think to execute somebody."
In recent weeks, the Supreme Court has stayed executions on the basis of its methodology. "[I]f this entire method is struck down, it could be years" before anyone is executed in the United States.
Hopefully by then, the public thirst for vengeance and blood will have waned.
// posted by Howling Latina @ 3:37 PM 
