The Political Voices of Women

Is Lethal Injection Cruel and Unusual Punishment? – by Catherine Morgan  (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog)

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the method of execution used in most states violates the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

From the Los Angeles Times…

Death penalty critics had hoped that the court would declare unconstitutional the use of a three-drug compound that has been the standard means of execution since the early 1980s. They say the use of a paralyzing drug could mask the fact that the condemned man may suffer searing pain when given a heart-stopping drug.

Let me begin by saying that I am not a proponent of the death penalty. However, I do believe that if you are going to have a “punishment” by death, the person being punished should NOT be granted a procedure that is not afforded to the most sick and dying of our own population.

From the Associated Press…

Justice Antonin Scalia said states have been careful to adopt procedures that do not seek to inflict pain and should not be barred from carrying out executions even if prison officials sometimes make mistakes in administering drugs. “There is no painless requirement” in the Constitution, Scalia said. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito also indicated their support for the states’ procedures.

This is what the death row inmates are asking for…

The case before the court comes from Kentucky, in which two death row inmates are not asking to be spared execution or death by injection. Instead, they want the court to order a switch to a single drug, a barbiturate, that causes no pain and can be given in a large enough dose to cause death.

What they are asking for is to be euthanized.

Euthanasia is equal to “mercy killing” (the act of killing someone painlessly – especially someone suffering from an incurable illness).

I believe there should be a distinct separation between “euthanasia” and “lethal injection“. Lethal injection for the purpose of “capital punishment” is not meant to be a “mercy killing.”

We euthanize our sick and injured pets in this country, to put them out of their misery. But, it is against the law to give this type of “mercy” to ourselves or our loved ones.

I speak of this as a nurse who has worked many years on an oncology unit, and have witnessed countless patients suffer and die in ways that most of us would not even want to witness our own pets die.

Letting our loved ones die with dignity is not an option for any citizen of this country…Why would we grant this “gentle, merciful” death to criminals?

It would seem a bigger injustice to me if criminals were given the choice of “euthanasia”, when citizens that have lived law abiding lives are left to suffer in severe pain for their last days, weeks, or months of life.

The Supreme Court decision should come by late June.