In April of this year, the Raleigh News and Observer wrote a piece about a small group of RN’s in North Carolina who were fighting nurses’ roles in executions. According to the article, RN’s are allowed to participate in executions of inmates even though this is in direct opposition to the ANA’s Code of Ethics. In an earlier piece, the same author, Andrea Weigl, notes that that

In 2003, after almost two decades of opposing nurses’ participation in executions, the N.C. Nurses Association broke ranks with the national body and other state nurses associations by leaving the decision to individual nurses.

A de facto moratorium on executions has been in effect in North Carolina for almost a year because they could not find any doctors to participate, something the AMA’s Code of Ethics also prohibits.

The American Nurses Association is clear in their position.

The fact that capital punishment is currently supported in many segments of society does not override the obligation of nurses to uphold the ethical mandates of the profession. The ANA recognizes that the endorsement of the death penalty remains a personal decision and that individual nurses may have views that are different from the official position of the profession. Regardless of the personal opinion of the nurse on the appropriateness of capital punishment, it is a breach of the ethical traditions of nursing, and the Code for Nurses to participate in taking life of any person.

I was happy to see that even my own state board put out a position statement, probably not a stretch since NJ hasn’t had an execution since 1963.

In a similiar vein, I came across an interesting article from the University of Minnesota Alumni Association’s magazine. In Taking on Torture, Shelley Fling interviews Steven Miles, M.D. about his study on torture deaths at Abu Graib. Dr. Miles, a professor at the medical school and the Center for Bioethics at U of M, says that he has evidence that doctors participated in torture and its coverup of prisoners at Guantanamo and in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says that the AMA has been wishy washy in their response to doctors participating in torture. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, it’s worth a read.

It got me wondering if nurses had ever participated in such. In 2004, the New England Journal of Medicine ran an article by Robert Jay Lifton, M.D. on doctors and torture. In it he cites a New York Times article alleging that doctors, nurses and medics were part of the Abu Graib scandal. Searching online, I found that the International Council of Nurses strongly opposes nursing involvement in torture or executions.

The International Council of Nurses strongly affirms that nurses should play no voluntary role in any deliberate infliction of physical or mental suffering and should not participate, either directly or indirectly, in the preparation for and the implementation of executions. To do otherwise is a clear violation of nursing’s ethical code of practice.

According to Dr. Miles, 60% of torture victims say a medical professional was present for their abuse. This doesn’t just have repercussions in America. In some parts of the world, a generation has grown up witnessing war, terrorism and genocide. Those of us who wear white should be a symbol of preserving life, not taking it.