Citation

Voigt HF, Ehrmann DM. Ethics Biol. Eng. Med. 2010; 1(1): 43-52.

Affiliation

Biomedical Engineering, Otolaryngology, School of Medicine Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Begell House)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Methods of judicial executions have changed radically throughout the millennia. Many of the more repugnant methods used to kill human beings have been disappearing from society. Attempts to find more "humane" techniques to end life have driven innovative advances in state-sanctioned killing methods. Physicians have long been ethically prohibited from participating in judicial executions, although there are some examples of physicians participating in human experimentation that resulted in death. In contrast, engineers and physicists have profited for centuries by creating ever more efficient means for killing masses of humans. Ethical codes for medical and biological engineers, biomedical engineers, and for engineers in general, are silent regarding their participation in capital punishment or in development of more "humane" methods for judicial executions. These codes need to be amended to make it perfectly clear that medical and biological engineers should play no part in judicial execution activities.