MEDICAL-ETHICS, CULTURAL-VALUES, AND PHYSICIAN PARTICIPATION IN LETHAL INJECTION

Capital punishment by lethal injection has been discussed in the liter ature, but there has been no consideration of the sociocultural founda tions of the ethical issues related to medical aspects of capital puni shment. Lethal injection represents the inappropriate medicalization o f a complex social issue whereby medical skills and procedures are use d in ways that contradict established medical practice. Although physi cians are socialized to their healing role during medical education an d training, their behavior is influenced by social and cultural values that both precede and coexist with their professional life. Because o f this dynamic interplay between professional and sociocultural values , physicians can neither exempt themselves from societal debate by mer ely invoking professional ethics, nor can they define their profession al role exclusively in terms of societal values that potentially dimin ish personal and collective-professional responsibility. It is essenti al that physicians have a broad historical perspective on the developm ent of the profession's standards and values in order to deal effectiv ely with present and future complex ethical issues.