Physician participation in capital punishment
Article Abstract:
Physician participation in capital punishment is controversial. Death by lethal injection is more problematic than other forms of capital punishment for medical professionals. This form of capital punishment requires a person with some type of medical knowledge to make the injection. The American Medical Association (AMA) denounced physician participation in capital punishment in 1980, but it did not provide a definition of this type of participation. Several medical organizations have proposed definitions of physician participation in death by lethal injection. According to these definitions, participation includes any type of activity that is involved directly or indirectly with the lethal injection. This includes activities both before and after the execution. The AMA's Council of Ethical and Judicial Affairs has also developed guidelines that define activities that are prohibited.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1993
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The role of physicians in conflicts and humanitarian crises: case studies from field missions of Physicians for Human Rights, 1988 to 1993
Article Abstract:
Medical and public health professionals from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) have documented human rights abuses in 35 countries since the organization was founded in 1986. Health professionals have training that makes them uniquely suited for this work. They can treat the victims of abuse, assess the health needs of refugee groups and uncover forensic evidence of torture and execution. For example, in 1992, soil samples from an Iraqi village were retrieved by members of PHR. They tested positive for mustard and nerve gas residues from an attack four years earlier. In Argentina DNA samples from exhumed bodies were analyzed to link children of murdered parents with their surviving grandparents. As human rights abuses continue to occur, human rights work will increasingly be seen as a part of the medical community's professional responsibility.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1993
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Professional Integrity in Clinical Research. (The Patient-Physician Relationship)
Article Abstract:
Physicians involved in patient care research must try to combine their role as a scientist with their role as physicians. Regulations governing human experimentation have not successfully ensured that patient care research will be conducted in an ethical manner. Professional integrity is important when conducting research on humans. The relationship between the investigator and the patients in the study is different than the relationship between physicians and individual patients.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1998
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