Capital punishment is defined as the killing of a person that is legally authorized for punishment for a crime that has been committed. American Nurse Association (ANA) has always been opposed to nurses participating in the capital punishment passed to individuals. The nurses agree with one statement that taking part in the killing of individuals either indirectly or directly goes against the ethical traditions and the goals that are fundamental to the profession of nursing. Several organizations like American Public Health Association (2001), International Council of Nurses (2006, 2006b), American Psychiatric Association (2008) have tried in various ways to address the roles that should be undertaken by professionals in the healthcare profession when it comes to the capital punishment (Cliff, 2003).All these organizations agree that when the professionals in the health sector get to participate in the capital punishment it gets to breach the ethics in the profession.
Historical Perspective of Nurses Role in Capital Punishment
When it comes to the historical perspective, the role of the nurses has always been tasked with promoting, preserving and protecting the human health. The American Nurse Association (ANA) committee that works on ethics took a position in regards to capital punishment in the year 1983.The version got revised by ANA Centre for Ethics and the Human Rights and it was approved by the board of directors of ANA in the year 1988 and later in the year 1994.The statements that were undertaken during that period referred to the Nurses Code of Ethics in the year 185.In the year 2005, there was also a House of Delegates Resolutions on acts of torture and Abuse conducted in the year 2005 that dealt on matters of the nurses in the environment of correctional (Faiver, 2017).
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In many times, the healthcare professionals that include the nurses are normally called upon so that they can get to terminate the lives of people that have been handed capital punishment. This includes the use of injection that is lethal in other ways. There are 35 states that have passed the law on giving offenders of crime a death penalty. However, there are other 15 states including Columbia district that is not in support of the capital punishment. The United States has been a country that has performed a lot of executions (Gaie, 2004).
In the year 1972, the U.S Supreme Court did a famous ruling that was also historical at the same time. The case was between Furman v Georgia that stated capital punishment was against the content in the constitution on the Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments that was in protection of individuals against unusual and cruel punishments. The rule on the death penalty remained until the year 1976 a time when the Supreme Court did uphold the death sentence in the Gregg v Georgia where the ruling stated that there is no violation of the Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments. The same rule got support from Baze V. Rees by the Supreme Court in the year 2000 that stated the injection of the lethal mechanism was not in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth amendment and at the same time it was not unusual or cruel (Cliff, 2003).
When it comes to looking at history, the role of the nurse has always been to preserve, promote and protect the health of humans. The code of Ethics for the ANA with its interpretive statement says that ‘’ethics is the foundation of nursing …. At the same time, it has the history of taking care of the injured, sick, social justice and those that are vulnerable. The concerns move to the community and should be inclusive of promotion, protection and the restoration of health. The Code of Ethics is based on the principles of respecting justice, persons, beneficence in order for the nurses to change the aspects of the social structures that do not ogre well with the wellbeing of individuals (Scherdin, 2016). Nurses in any way should not be involved in inflicting of pain and at the same time ending the life of a patient. An obligation that is of refraining from causing death should stand and there is no time that it should be breached even when it has been called for legally (Hodgkinson, 2013).
ANA recognizes that endorsing of the death penalty is a decision that s personal and the nurses on their individual perspectives may hold views that vary from the official position that is taken by the profession. However, despite the personal position that is taken by individual nurses, capital punishment remains to be a breach of the traditions that have been set in the nursing profession and also the Code of Ethics that disallows the killing of an individual (Gaie, 2004).As much as capital punishment has a lot of support in many sectors of the environment, it does not surpass the obligation of the nurses that is to uphold ethical mandates that are found in the profession.
Current Effect of Capital Punishment on Nursing
There is no doubt that the involvement of nurses in capital punishment is bringing harm to the profession. Not only in the profession but the individual nurses are also carrying the guilt of taking part in the whole scenario. Since the same materials that are used on cutting life of individuals are the same that are used in the maintaining of the life, it brings a lot of contradiction. As a result, there are many individuals that are not willing to trust the nurses as a result of them being involved in double speaking. This has led the nursing profession to lose the respect that has always been there for the profession (Cliff, 2003). There are patients that may prefer dying rather than being taken to the nurses that are involved in the terminating of lives for individuals yet they clearly now that it is wrong.
With some government quarters asking nurses to be involved in the termination of the life of individuals, it has led to nurses that are not willing to be involved in using of the lethal injection to quit the practice. This is because some of the nurses believe that terminating the life of an individual is totally against their will and values. The nurses get to quit their position and what happens next is the lack of professionals that can take care of ailing individuals in their various health facilities. The lack of nurses in the health facilities has, in turn, lead to patients lying in their hospital beds without being cared for which has made the department in charge of the health to call upon an individual to be involved in the nursing field (Segrave, 2008).
In regard to the role of the nurses in capital punishment, there are many human rights activists that have come up in order to condemn the involvement of nurses in terminating the life of individuals. It is no doubt that the nurses themselves are turning against the act of injecting the lethal chemical and getting to speak against it.Many individuals have also been involved in the condemning of the ANA for just speaking through writing but not being in support of the profession when the nurses are involved in the termination life for individuals and which should not be the case (Scerdin, 2016).The human activists have called for an end to the nurses that are taking part in the use of the lethal injection. The condemnation has gone to harm the image of the nurses and the profession itself making it not to be the crème profession as it was before.
Future implications of Nurses Role in Capital Punishment
In the year 2009, the Quebec College of Physicians and Surgeons went ahead to approve euthanasia. The approval has with jo doubt put a lot of implications on the medicine and physician profession and it has been taken as being negative. This is because this is the same as ending a life of a person with a lot of deliberations. With nurses having the go-ahead to be involved in ending the life of individuals, there is no doubt that there is a lot of implications at the institutional level, societal level and governmental levels (Hodgkinson, 2013). However, with the participation of nurses in the termination of lives for individuals, there are possibilities that will come up. This can be described by the fact that important symbols and values that are held closely in the society will be affected. At the same time, the role that nurses take in the capital punishment will have a lot of impacts on law, medicine since these are two professions that need to be respected a lot (Segrave, 2008).
The role that nurses have on capital punishment like participating in inflicting the lethal injection, leads to a lot of damage to the values of the society which calls for the respect of the life of humans; when nurses are involved in the termination of life for individuals that is the same as euthanasia. This means the way death will happen in the future is not through natural means but through agreement of more than one people instead of an individual dying naturally. This then goes to mean that the image of the nurses will be highly corrupted as the values of the society will have been damaged. Making people die intentionally means that it is going against the law where the life of humans has to be respected (Faiver, 2017).
When the nurses get involved in the capital punishment, it means that they are involving medicine and law in the activity. It is known that pluralistic society, secular, law, and medicines are the institutions that should respect the life of humans in the whole society as a whole. When capital punishment is practiced, it means that the profession will have allowed the nurses to take part in euthanasia (Scherdin, 2016). That will be using medicine to terminate the life of individuals. To the practitioners and the professions in the medicine filed, it will get to mean that the profession of the nurses and the entire medicine and law profession will not hold the image that they normally have. The reputation will have been broken.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that when nurses are involved in capital punishment, it comprises the objectives of the nurses that are meant to provide, promote care to the patients that are suffering. This means that the compassion that is held by the nurses in caring for others will not be there. There are no way nurses can be involved in protecting life and at the same time get involved in terminating it. In all, nurses should look at protecting life and stick to their code of ethics to remain professional as it should be(Faiver,2017). However, due to the different thinking of the 21st-century nurse, there is bound to be a lot of negative effect on the profession due to the role that is played by nurses in capital punishment
References
Cliff, C. (2003). Capital punishment: a bibliography with indexes . New York: Nova Science Publishers.
Faiver, K. (2017). Humane health care for prisoners: ethical and legal challenges . Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Gaie, J. (2004). The ethics of medical involvement in capital punishment: a philosophical discussion . Dordrecht Boston: Kluwer Academic.
Hodgkinson, P. (2013). Capital punishment: new perspectives . Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub. Company.
Scherdin, L. (2016). Capital Punishment A Hazard to a Sustainable Criminal Justice System . London: Taylor and Francis.
Segrave, K. (2008). Women and capital punishment in America, 1840-1899: death sentences and executions in the United States and Canada . Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co.
