Debate Over Lethal Injection Unfairly Brings Medical Community Into Debate, Emory Doctor Says

By Jim Burress

Atlanta, GA – The debate over the humaneness of the death penalty again surfaced this week.

A decade ago, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment, which is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. Lethal injection is the only means of execution in the state.

Now, Georgia's use of a three drug "cocktail" to induce death is being challenged, because some say it also has the potential to be cruel and unusual.

Because lethal injection uses drugs -- otherwise approved medications used to save lives -- it's also brought physicians into the debate.

Recently, WABE's Jim Burress spoke with Emory University anesthesiologist and intensive care specialist, Dr. Joel Zivot. Zivot says lethal injection is troubling, because using medicine to take a life goes against what the medical community is charged to do: save lives.

(click "play" icon above to hear interview)