Negotiating Medical Ethics

Andrea Weigl continues the N&O's coverage of the mess North Carolina has made of its execution protocols . . . as it falls all over itself to make sure death "doesn't hurt" one little bit.

Governor Easley concedes there is a moratorium in place: He says, "How long that will last will depend on how long it takes to untangle this Gordian knot."

Man, that was deep! But (as a fellow blogger reminded me yesterday), the vexing problem of the Gordian knot was solved by one whack of Alexander the Great's sword.

Alexander made a leadership decision. It's what made him "Great".

Too bad our leaders today are incapable of making decision without a consensus or a poll.

Most conceded the legislature is going to have to intervene at some point. But this is where it gets entertaining: N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, whose office represents the prison system, said Tuesday that he wanted the council to act before his staff talks with the N.C. Medical Board about its ethics policy.

Question: The Medical Board is a state entity too. The AG doens't represent them?

"The purpose of bringing this today was to bring something to them," Cooper said.

Medical Board officials declined to comment (par for the course). The board's next scheduled meeting is Feb. 21.

In the "What's Next" section of the second page, it gets even better:

Prison system lawyers plan to talk to the N.C. Medical Board to see whether negotiation can settle this dispute.

Otherwise, prison officials may have to sue the Medical Board, making the board a party to the inmates' pending lawsuits.

This is rich. Under threat of litigation, the state of North Carolina is going to "negotiate" cannons of medical ethics (which are absolute) with the North Carolina Medical Board.

I would LOVE to be a fly on that wall!

It's not quite like being jarred out of a sound sleep and being asked to choose between keeping your job and letting a newborn baby die . . . or watching your career become a "slow-moving train wreck" because you chose to adhere to the Medical Board's cannons.

But this "negotiation" should give the North Carolina Medical Board a small taste of their own bad medicine.