Jennifer Woo with the Columbia University Center for Bioethics has just sent me a save the date note for a symposium on Wednesday, January 23, 2008, at Columbia University in New York City.
Here's the info:
THE SUPREME COURT AND THE LEGAL, MEDICAL, AND ETHICAL CHALLENGES TO
EXECUTION BY LETHAL INJECTION
Date: January 23, 2008 from 9 am - 2 pm
Location: The Low Library Faculty Room at Columbia University
116th Street and Broadway, New York, NY
Registration: The event is free; ALL are encouraged to attend. Seating is limited; Registration is required to reserve lunch. Contact Jennifer Woo
On January 7, 2008, the United States Supreme Court will hear opening arguments in Baze v. Rees, a pioneering case challenging the constitutionality of judicial execution by lethal injection. This is the first case since Roe v. Wade that the Supreme Court has grappled so intimately with the constitutionality of a medical procedure. With nearly four thousand inmates on Death Row in the thirty-seven states that utilize lethal injection in judicial execution, this method has recently drawn close scrutiny. Nearly all states
have enacted a de facto moratorium, halting executions until the Supreme Court hands down its opinion on whether the three-drug cocktail method currently used in lethal injection administration violates the Eighth Amendment ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."
In response to the increased attention concerning the legal, medical, and ethical challenges to execution by lethal injection, the Center for Bioethics at Columbia University will sponsor a full-day Symposium titled The Supreme Court and the Legal, Medical, and Ethical Challenges to Execution by Lethal Injection. The Symposium is designed for legal scholars, physicians, bioethicists, all students and others interested in this litigious topic.
Invited speakers comprise the pioneers and leaders addressing this contentious issue:
Paul Appelbaum, MD: "The Hippocratic Paradox: The Ethical Conflict Regarding Physician Participation in the Execution Procedure"
Allen Hyman, MD: "Anesthetic Goals and Confronting Intraoperative Awareness?
Mark Heath, MD: "Report from the Field: The Realities of Lethal Injection?
Deborah Denno, JD, PhD: "Constitutional (Non)Compliance?: A Legal and Legislative History of Judicial Execution by Lethal Injection"
Ginger Anders, JD: " From the Supreme Court: Baze v Rees and the Future of Execution by Lethal Injection"
The Symposium will address a wide range of questions including:
What are the ethical, moral, and professional reasons why a physician may elect, or decline, to participate in execution by lethal injection?
How does the three-drug cocktail work? How was it developed? What are the risks of conscious paralysis and intraoperative awareness?
What happens when the execution procedure is not carried out as ideally planned?
How did legal and legislative processes lead to the implementation of the three-drug cocktail method of lethal injection?
What are the future implications for judicial execution by lethal injection, given the January 2008 Supreme Court proceedings? Will future interpretations of the Eighth Amendment change to mitigate risk of cruel and unusual punishment?
Comments