Physicians' Attitudes About Involvement in Lethal Injection for Capital Punishment

Neil Farber, Elizabeth B. Davis, Joan Weiner, Janine Jordan, E. Gil Boyer, Peter A. Ubel
2000 Archives of Internal Medicine  
Physicians could play various roles in carrying out capital punishment via lethal injection. Medical societies like the American Medical Association (AMA) and American College of Physicians have established which roles are acceptable and which are disallowed. No one has explored physicians' attitudes toward their potential roles in this process. Methods: We surveyed physicians about how acceptable it was for physicians to engage in 8 actions disallowed by the AMA and 4 allowed actions involving
more » ... lethal injection. Questions assessing attitudes toward capital punishment and assisted suicide were included. The impact of attitudinal and demographic variables on the number of disallowed actions deemed acceptable was analyzed via analysis of variance and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Four hundred eighty-two physicians (51%) returned questionnaires. Eighty percent indicated that at least 1 of the disallowed actions was acceptable, 53% in- ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION
doi:10.1001/archinte.160.19.2912 pmid:11041897 fatcat:c7spvgbnwjgwtc3iccyk5y35ba