NC Prison Officials To The Medical Board: You Are Cordially Invited To Dance

The N&O reports today that state prison officials filed a lawsuit seeking to prohibit the N.C. Medical Board from disciplining doctors under the board's new mandate that they may only observe, not monitor, executions.

So. The geniuses behind this lawsuit would weaken further the state's medical licensing board . . . a board that already is under significant fire from many sides for (1) playing favorites, (2) not defending duties it requires and (3) ultimately not protecting patients . . . by stripping the board of the power to discipline doctors who participate in executions.

Don't get me wrong. I love it. This medical board (especially its legal department) treated me like the lowest form of pond scum when I begged for help in my fight against two lying hospital executives who did not give a rat's tail about medical ethics or the board's hallowed position statements. I was left to swing in an ethical vacuum. I lost a practice and a life in my hometown for it.

Whatever grief the NCMB gets now for its lack of foresight in such matters, they richly deserve.

The warden of Central Prison has not been able to find a physician willing to participate in an upcoming execution (the inmate wants to die):

"My solicitation efforts have been unsuccessful as all licensed physicians I have contacted, including current employees of the N.C. Department of Correction, have advised that they refuse to subject themselves to disciplinary action by the board for participating or otherwise being involved in executions."

Prison officials are likely headed back to court to argue that a doctor's participation in an execution is not a medical procedure, and therefore not under the purview of the medical board.

HELLO? If it's not a medical procedure, then WHY do you need a doctor to participate in the first place?

Here's another thought: Even if the state is successful in stripping its own medical board of the power to discipline the physicians it licenses, I sincerely doubt any doctor with an ounce of integrity will step forward to do the state's bidding.

You see, doctors in this country can CHOOSE who they see and what they do.

They can say no.

Of course, if a doctor employed by the NC Department of Corrections is fired for refusing to participate in a procedure that violates medical ethics, that might make for an interesting lawsuit.

More money for the lawyers. Nothing gets solved.

In this case, state officials are just spinning their wheels and passing the buck . . . when they need to be petitioning the legislature to grow a spine and confront this issue head on (instead of trying to preserve the notion that death can be made "un-cruel" and usual). This is really a political battle . . . over the very existence of the death penalty . . . and therefore requires a thorough re-examination of methods and protocols . . . instead of a quick end-run around medical ethics.

Doctors should not be in the middle.

But as usual, what needs to happen is being side-tracked by the legal eagles and their dance of jurisdiction.

I am familiar with it.