Posted on 09/28/2006 11:23:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN JOSE
One of two anesthesiologists who bowed out of participating in the February lethal injection of a condemned inmate, prompting a stay of execution, testified Thursday that he didn't want to be "painted as an executioner."
Dr. Robert Singler of Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa volunteered to monitor the execution of Michael Morales, but later declined after learning he may have to participate rather than solely monitor the prisoner's consciousness.
Singler testified during the federal court hearing, looking at whether California's lethal injection method is unconstitutionally cruel, that he had agreed only to stand by the inmate and watch him die. But just hours before the execution, state officials told him he may have to direct prison staffers to ensure Morales was unconscious before two other lethal drugs were administered, he said.
Singler's account was the first time it became publicly known why Morales, who is challenging the state's method of lethal injection, is still alive.
"I had a responsibility to rescue a botched execution," he testified. "I just didn't feel like getting painted as an executioner."
Singler said the other volunteer anesthesiologist, who was not named, also came to the same conclusion that they would be violating the Hippocratic Oath by participating.
In February, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel found "substantial evidence" in past medical logs suggesting the last six men executed in San Quentin State Prison might have been conscious and therefore subjected to unnecessary pain because they were still breathing when the lethal drugs were administered.
Fogel had ordered two licensed anesthesiologists to ensure Morales was unconscious. Or, he said, the prison could kill by sedative overdose if it was injected by a medical professional.
After the execution was canceled because Singler and the other anesthesiologist bowed out, Fogel called for four days of hearings, which began Tuesday, to determine whether the state must alter its procedure.
Earlier Thursday, a pharmacist testified condemned killers are knocked unconscious in the first minute of their execution and do not feel pain under the state's current method of lethal injection.
San Quentin uses seven to eight times the dose of a sedative given to open heart surgery patients, said Brent Elkin, who testified on behalf of prosecutors who argue the state's current method is humane.
"I think this is well above the dose for adequate sedation," said Elkin, of the Hanford Community Medical Center. "They would have no pain recognition at all."
Elkin's testimony came on the third day of a federal court hearing over whether a three-drug cocktail used to sedate, paralyze and kill an inmate violates the U.S. Constitution's bar on cruel and unusual punishment. A similar procedure is used in 36 other states.
Morales, 46, is on death row for kidnapping, torturing and raping 17-year-old Terri Winchell of Stockton 25 years ago.
Attorneys for Morales rested their case after a different anesthesiologist said Wednesday that errors by prison staffers with no medical background may leave inmates conscious and in excruciating pain masked by drugs. He said inmates could feel as if they are drowning, but observers would not be able to tell.
Dr. Mark Heath of Columbia University said an anesthesiologist should be on hand to make sure the inmate is unconscious, but said it was unethical to do so and added he had never attended an execution.
State prosecutors have acknowledged some problems with past executions, but say the method is not unconstitutional.
Fogel asked Heath whether executing condemned murderers by only injecting a large dose of a sedative instead of the three-drug cocktail would guarantee a painless death if administered properly.
If there were no mishaps, Heath said, "It would work properly."
The case is Morales v. Tilton, 06-219.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Executions shouldn't require a doctor to do anything but pronounce the subject dead. The only choice to be made is bullet, rope, or pike.
That may be the nature of punishment, but it isn't -- and has never been -- the purpose of punishment. Suffering itself isn't an end. Moreover, the doctor's refusal to assist in the execution has nothing to do with the merits of the death penalty in general, and everything to do with the specific ethics of the medical profession, which prevents the harming of life. Blame Hypocrates.
Man, they gotta bring back the good ole electric chair.
Guillotine. No drugs.
No pain. Over in .0002 of a second. Apprehension, yes.
I think I read here that Marie Antoinette (and others) were placed on the guillotine face up.
I agree. The doctor was in the right on this one. He has sworn to do no harm.
wonder if he would be so ethical when asked to perform an abortion?
Perhaps he would. There are many, many, doctors who hold human life sacred. You are making a common fallacy: stereotyping a person based on perceived group characteristics.
death by 90 story drop....no pain at all...
i certainly HOPE he would.
I doubt very seriously that he holds many lives sacred.
At the very least, the girl this man killed.
But doctors don't need to be involved in excutions any more than lawyers need to be on the battlefield.
Now if the eyes of the rest of the doctors would be opened while they're executing innocent babies - - -
43,000,000 children murdered since Row vs. Wade was shoved down our throats.
You have absolutely no grounds to make such an accusation.
I could doubt very seriously that you are even remotely intelligent. But, I have no grounds for that, so I won't - yet.
I'm pro death penalty. If being the executioner were assigned by lottery, I'd pull the switch, trigger or trapdoor and go home and eat dinner.
But I would not use my particular skills for this purpose. I think the use of medical staff and medical tools to carry out this function is a sign of social decay, and I want no part of it.
Is this true?...Never heard it before.
Maybe so......not everyone is as intelligent as some assume,
but your personal attack on me is totally out of line.
Perhaps you should read the directions on posting to another.
Thank you very much.
Now...to the subject at hand...
The death penalty in this country has been picked and prodded and torn apart and completely done away with at times, and I for one, am tired of liberals trying to make out like the lives of depraved criminals are more important than the victims.
BTW... if I offended you, please forgive me. I was talking about the man in the article.
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