2006年VOA标准英语-Prison Physician Weighs His Role in Executions

By Jessica Berman
Washington
23 July 2006

Last week, a U.S. doctor and two nurses were charged with murdering four seriously ill patients who were trapped with hundreds of others in a flood-damaged, sweltering New Orleans hospital after hurricane Katrina. In addition to the ethical¹ issues involved in that case, there are also renewed questions about the ethics² of physicians and nurses participating in the execution of inmates⁴ sentenced to death in U.S. prisons.

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Capital punishment has been outlawed⁵ by 85 countries, including most of the major western nations, but the United States allows execution as a punishment for murder.

Some executions are carried out with a lethal⁶ dose of sedative⁷ drugs administered intravenously, which means medical professionals must be involved in the process. But doctors and nurses take a professional oath to "do no harm," and many ethicists have questioned whether ending the life, even of a violent felon⁸, violates their oath.

Carlo Musso is a physician in Georgia who provides health care to inmates. After years of working in the correctional system, Musso says he got a request to participate in the execution of a condemned⁹ prisoner. "My original thoughts were how horrible it must be for a physician to take care of an inmate³ on death row and then after years participate in the execution of his patient," he says.

Musso told a New England Journal of Medicine interviewer that the first thing he did was witness an execution, an event that made him very sad. That was until he realized the execution was an end-of-life issue. "And at that point I felt that it was my duty to make sure if someone was going to die, that he die or she die in the most humane¹⁰ way possible, with the least amount of pain and suffering. And that this overwhelming duty that I felt outweighed¹¹ any other issue or conflict I had in my mind at that time," he says.

Musso's role in the few executions he has been involved in has been in pronouncing an inmate's death.

Nurses fill syringes with the lethal drugs and insert intravenous tubes. Prison employees administer the drugs that cause death. Musso says he would do anything except inject the drugs. "I feel it is my duty that if this patient is going to die, my duty is to make sure that if he dies, he dies in a painless manner. However, I would not play the role of the executioner. I would not actually be the causation of his death," he says.

1 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

2 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

3 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

4 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 outlawed   

宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Most states have outlawed the use of marijuana. 大多数州都宣布使用大麻为非法行为。
• I hope the sale of tobacco will be outlawed someday. 我希望有朝一日烟草制品会禁止销售。

6 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

7 sedative   

adj.使安静的，使镇静的；n. 镇静剂，能使安静的东西

参考例句：

• After taking a sedative she was able to get to sleep.服用了镇静剂后，她能够入睡了。
• Amber bath oil has a sedative effect.琥珀沐浴油有镇静安神效用。

8 felon   

n.重罪犯；adj.残忍的

参考例句：

• He's a convicted felon.他是个已定罪的重犯。
• Hitler's early "successes" were only the startling depredations of a resolute felon.希特勒的早期“胜利 ”，只不过是一个死心塌地的恶棍出人意料地抢掠得手而已。

9 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

10 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。

11 outweighed   

v.在重量上超过( outweigh的过去式和过去分词 )；在重要性或价值方面超过

参考例句：

• This boxer outweighed by his opponent 20 pounds. 这个拳击选手体重比他的对手重20磅。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She outweighed me by ten pounds, and sometimes she knocked me down. 她的体重超过我十磅，有时竟把我撞倒。 来自百科语句