Physicians and executions
If the cardinal rule of medicine is "First, do no harm," what role, if any, should physicians have in state-sanctioned executions?
The New England Journal of Medicine recently hosted a round-table discussion on that topic. Although most of the Journal's online content is behind a pay firewall, they've got a transcript of that discussion out for public consumption. If you prefer, you can download the audio.
What do you think? Should physicians be involved in state executions? Can executions be carried out without them? And what's a state to do if physicians refuse to be involved?
(The Journal also has online an interesting article about the aftereffects of mild traumatic brain injury in soldiers returning from Iraq.)