American Board Of Anesthesiology Hypocrisy

Ho-hum, I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you!! The American Board of Anesthesiology is tut-tutting over its members participating in administering lethal injections in state executions. Too bad they are pretty silent on their members assisting suicide or carrying out euthanasia. Ah, you say, that never happens. Anyone wanna bet??

Anesthesiologists and Capital Punishment

The majority of states in the United States authorize capital punishment, and nearly all states utilize lethal injection as the means of execution. However, this method of execution is not always straightforward (1), and, therefore, some states have sought the assistance of anesthesiologists (2).

This puts anesthesiologists in an untenable position. They can assuredly provide effective anesthesia, but doing so in order to cause a patient’s death is a violation of their fundamental duty as physicians to do no harm. more