Press Release
From Dr. Jon Groner & Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP.org) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, November 30, 2005 CONTACT (PRODUCERS - Reps Available for Talk Shows) Abe Bonowitz - CUADP 561-371-5204 - Mobile Jonathan I. Groner MD 614-722-3919 - Office NOTE: TWO ITEMS #1 - FORMER DP SUPPORTER TO PROTEST APPROACH OF 1000TH EXECUTION IN THE USMedia Advisory: Former death penalty supporter, now executive director of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Abraham J. Bonowitz will be present at the 1000th execution protests and is available for comment at 561-371-5204. Bonowitz (http://www.cuadp.org/abe_bio.html) is a leading organizer in the national efforts to raise awareness around the 1000th execution. #2 - Statement from Dr. Jonathan I. Groner, on Physician Participation in Executions
"While human rights organizations around the world are decrying the
shameful milestone of the 1000th execution in the United States, there is
another slightly smaller, but perhaps even more shameful number to
consider: 832.
"Of the 1000 executions, 832 have been administered by lethal
injection. The first occurred in 1982, when two physicians watched as a
Texas inmate was executed by the injection of lethal drugs into a vein in
his arm. In the ensuing 25 years, almost all states have adopted lethal
injection as the preferred execution technique. Since 2001, 99% of
executions have been carried out by lethal injection.
"The number 832 is shameful because it is likely that doctors have
participated – to some degree – in every lethal injection. It is well
documented that physicians have monitored vital signs, prepared lethal
drugs, selected IV sites, inserted IVs, and supervised execution
personnel. It is known for certain that physicians directly participate
in lethal injection executions in Connecticut, Georgia, and Missouri, and
there is evidence that they been involved in other states as well. This
participation is contrary to the ethical guidelines of major national
medical organizations, including The American Medical Association.
"Lethal injection is a medical charade. It subverts medical technology and
medical expertise – designed to bring comfort and healing – into
instruments of killing. This medicalization of killing originated in the
atrocities of Nazi medicine during World War II.
"Furthermore, lethal injection is a stain on the face of medicine because
it defiles not only those physicians who participate, but all physicians as
well. Doctors have a responsibility not only to heal and comfort, but
also to be a morally protective force in society. Doctors have failed
society 832 times. It is time for the medical community to call for an end
to capital punishment in the United States."
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Contact information:
Jonathan I. Groner MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery, The OSU College of Medicine and
Public Health
phone:614-722-3919
fax: 614-722-3903
gronerj@chi.osu.edu
Articles by Dr. Groner:
1. Groner JI: Lethal injection: a stain on the face of medicine. Bmj
325:1026-1028., 2002
2. Groner JI: Lethal Injection and the Medicalization of Capital Punishment
in the United States. Health and Human Rights: An International Journal
6:64-79, 2002
3. Groner JI: Lethal Injection: The Medical Charade. Ethics and
Medicine: An International Journal of Bioethics 20:25-30, 2004
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More information about the 1000th execution is available (still in
development) at http://www.1000executions.org.
**
For additional background and context, please see the Death Penalty
Information Center's press release at
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=1&did=454
Headlined: U.S. Death Penalty Continues Steady Decline as 1000th Execution
Approaches; Public Opinion, Executions, Death Sentences Drop as Public
Skepticism Rises
***
SENT BY:
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director, CUADP
<abe@cuadp.org>
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