“Kill ’em all!” you say. No mercy for criminals!
Here’s something to give you pause. Michael Morales was set to be executed at 7:30pm today. The warden intended to carry out the execution with a 5g dose of barbituates, lengthening the time for Morales to die from 11 minutes to 45 minutes.
The doctors were ready to go. But the anethesiologists raised an ethical objection:
The doctors’ concerns hinged on the ethics of returning an inmate to consciousness in the event of a botched lethal injection.
Doctors said the ruling raised serious questions about the possibility of having to intervene in the execution ‘if any evidence of either pain or a return to consciousness arose.’
In a statement to the warden, the doctors said, ‘Any such intervention would be medically unethical. As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in this current process. … What is being asked of us is ethically unacceptable.’
Good for them. As for Morales?
Morales was returned to his cell on death row, and prison officials declined to describe what the inmate only thought was his last meal.
The case seems to be an interesting debate of whether or not lethal injection is really a humane form of carrying out the death penalty. What’s more, the ethical conundrum of giving life-saving assistance to someone who “wakes up” after being sedated is a tough question to answer.
Your children will read about this case in their textbooks.