Death Row Protest by Doctors Stirs New Debate
Both Amy Welborn and Katelyn Sills link to stories (here and here) about a scheduled California execution by lethal injection that was put on hold because the 2 doctors who were to administer the lethal dosage refused to do so on the basis that they believed it would violate the Hippocratic Oath.
I can think of several simple solutions to solve this alleged problem of doctors participating in lethal injections violating the Hippocratic oath:
(1) bring back the hangman;
(2) bring back the firing squad;
(3) bring back the electric chair; and/or
(4) bring back the gas chamber.
None of these methods of execution involve a member of the medical profession in any way other than to pronounce the prisoner dead.
Look, I shouldn't be so cavalier about anyone's life being taken, but I find it hard to take seriously this alleged opposition to the execution of convicted murderers when the same medical profession sees no problem with taking the life of the innocent through abortion and, increasingly, through euthanasia.
And I REALLY AM trying to come around to the Church's newly "developed" teaching on the death penalty. I truly am trying. It's just that the Church's (or should I say John Paul II's) views on capital punishment really are a stumbling block for me. So, perhaps I wouldn't be out of line in asking for your prayers that I would receive the grace to conform my mind to that of the Church on this issue.
posted by Pro Ecclesia 9:40 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Not to mention the fact that the Hippcratic Oath explicitly forbids abortion or even prescribing abortifacients.
I'll keep you in my prayers, Jay, if you'll keep me in yours.
On the death penalty, my logic is like this:
God wants everyone to be saved.
He gives to each of us the grace we need to be saved.
It's up to us to respond to that gift of grace during our lifetime.
God chooses how long that lifetime should be. God's time is not ours.
If someone intentionally terminates another's life, we may be condemning them to hell, contrary to God's wishes.
Although some criminals, by our estimation, do deserve death, by God's estimation, we all deserve death ("use every man after his dessert, and who among us shall 'scape whipping?" Hamlet).
If God's love for us is infinite, then no finite action we take can diminish that love.
Therefore if we are God's people we should, if we can, avoid employing the death penalty, even though we have a right to use it according to historic Catholic teaching.
In my view, as a matter of public policy, this means that we should call upon our elected representatives to end the death penalty in law.
I do not believe that a Judge should use this as a basis for overturning death sentences, and I also believe that a Catholic juror, given current law, can licitly vote to execute a convicted criminal under the proper circumstances.
Does that make sense?
On more point: It's not that the death penalty, properly applied is evil, but that it fails to be as merciful as we should strive to be.
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