SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
The death penalty is legal in 27 states, and all of them use lethal injection as the primary method. That means medical professionals must store, test and inject the drugs. Tennessee's next execution is coming up on Wednesday. And as Catherine Sweeney from member station WPLN reports, some doctors want healthcare workers to be removed from the process entirely. And a note to listeners - this story describes the lethal injection procedure used in the death penalty.
CATHERINE SWEENEY, BYLINE: Back in May, Tennessee halted the execution of Tony Carruthers. A physician failed to place a central line in his chest. In a letter to the governor, dozens of doctors and nurses from across the state said the execution was horrifyingly botched and should never happen again. Dr. Robert Quinn was among them.
ROBERT QUINN: The healthcare professionals who agree to take part in Tennessee's executions are those willing to set aside their professional ethics.
SWEENEY: He says that for one thing, the Hippocratic oath says, do no harm, and ethical codes, like the one put out by the American Medical Association, explicitly bar doctors from participating in the death penalty. The letter calls on Governor Bill Lee to place a moratorium on the death penalty and overhaul the state's execution method. They don't think executions should resemble medicine or involve doctors, nurses, pharmacists, or anyone else in healthcare. Dr. John Greer also signed the letter.
JOHN GREER: We do not want to participate and should not participate in legally authorized executions.
SWEENEY: Under Tennessee's protocol, other health workers, like nurses or paramedics, place IVs into the prisoner's arms. If they can't find a vein, a doctor must step in to insert a plastic tube, or central line, in a deeper vein. Regarding Carruthers' failed execution in May, the doctor said what he experienced was torturous. The IV team tried to access veins in his arms and failed. They tried his hands and his feet. Then the doctor tried a central line in Carruthers' chest and shoulder. His attorney, Maria DeLiberato, said blood was oozing from his puncture wounds.
MARIA DELIBERATO: Tony was moaning and groaning in pain this entire time.
SWEENEY: Finally, the governor's office called the prison. The governor was ordering them to stop. He gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve. The physician in Carruthers' execution, Dr. Mark Fowler, hadn't placed a central line in 13 years according to legal records. Reached by phone, Fowler told NPR that the doctor does not participate in the execution except to declare the time of death and did not have further comment. The doctors who signed the letter don't have an execution method that they prefer over lethal injection. Greer says even asking doctors to help improve the process still leaves them in an ethical quandary.
GREER: To do this well, you'd need somebody who's well-trained and perhaps in the medical profession, but we forbid that from occurring. So there's a paradox.
SWEENEY: Some Republican state senators have also called for a moratorium on executions and an overhaul. They said the state's incompetence gives critics of capital punishment more ammunition. At a press conference this summer, Governor Bill Lee, whose final term ends in January, said he doesn't want a moratorium.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
BILL LEE: Department of Correction did exactly what they should. It should not affect executions in the future.
SWEENEY: Tennessee is slated to execute a woman named Christa Pike on September 30. Her attorneys say she has a blood disorder that makes it likely she will need a central line. For NPR News, I'm Catherine Sweeney in Nashville.
PFEIFFER: This story comes from NPR's partnership with WPLN and KFF Health News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.