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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.

Georgia's Doctors and the Ethics of Execution

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The ethical dilemmas raised by Monday's execution of a mentally disabled man call attention to the role of doctors as executioners.

Despite international human rights appeals and a conflicting Supreme Court ruling, on Monday Georgia intends to execute a mentally disabled man convicted of two murders. When the lethal drug is pushed, the Medical Association of Georgia will be standing behind the doctor who will be making one of Georgia's most questionable executions possible. The medical association failed to enact its own membership ethics code for seven years and accredited the prison where the death will occur, leaving the organization morally linked to this grave moment.

Though the European Union has intentionally created lethal injection drug shortages as part of its strategy to cripple America's capacity for capital punishment, the Peach State has persevered past this pharmaceutical blockade and will instead employ a single agent, pentobarbital. Pentoparbital's lone use means a longer and more uncertain death for the condemned man, Warren Hill, who will drift into an ever-deepening coma under the auspices of Dr. Carlo Musso and his team of team of doctors and nurses from Rainbow Medical Associates. Rainbow Medical shares the same address and the same key personnel as CorrectHealth, Dr. Musso's contract correctional health care company which provides medical services to jails and prisons throughout Georgia. CorrectHealth personnel both mend prisoners and finish them off.

Doctors who participate in executions in Georgia and other states have survived repeated challenges to their medical licenses lodged by anti-death penalty activists. Capital punishment is legal, and death penalty states provide added immunity (and anonymity if desired) to cooperating medical personnel.


Source: Ford Vox, The Atlantic, July 20, 2012. Ford Vox, MD, is an Atlantic correspondent and a physician.

Related article:
Death Penalty News: U.S.: Nurses' Role in Capital Punishment
Jul 17, 2012
The ANA is opposed to all forms of participation by nurses in capital punishment, by whatever means, whether under civil or military legal authority. Participation in capital punishment is inconsistent with the ethical precepts of ...
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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