Death Row Doctor: Why I Take Part in Executions | Op-Docs 

The documentary doesn't say that, those are your words. We still don't know what his role is. It may be simply pronouncing death.

David Marskell 3:00 he says he is not an advocate of the death penalty.

yes, but if he and all other medical personnel boycotted the process then there could be no executions

@@Mikee22ification that's where you're wrong. In many states doctors refuse because it goes against the hypocratic oath and so ill trained people who aren't doctors or nurses place the IVs it's lead to veins bursting and horrible deaths

​@@Mikee22ification Zinnia is correct. You don't have to be a board-certified physician (medical personnel) to carry out an execution. If you had the choice of having your execution administered by a physician versus anyone else, you would choose the physician. Very few people would want to die painfully.

Keenan Johnston, I wondered if it was just me or would anybody else see that.

Keenan Johnston I see it too. It looks like despair

He feels the obligation to do it, but he definitely thinks the whole thing is rotten.

You would have sad eyes if you had to end someone's life

*Junko Enoshima wants to know your place*

Yes

I would hate to see that if it was my own family member regardless of what they'd done.

Seriously! I couldn’t believe there were 5 minutes between the final injection and the pronunciation of death. It made me wonder what kind of suffering happens in those 5 minutes.

That part is what got me...

Lethal injection is a slow, terrifying way to go. But most of them are atleast treated better the days and hours before they go, which is often more than can be said for their victims.... if they have any that is. A lot of innocent men have died on death row. It's hard to grapple with.

The guy on the gurney already knows that look. He saw it in the eyes of the person or persons he murdered.

Remember, those people are the for a reason.

Ask the inmate about to be executed, they’d know

This is true of any acute healthcare setting, though. The ICU, the ER? Medsurge? You may be the last voice they hear

@@MzShonuff123 agree. thats the reality of not only healthcare workers but on a larger scale, life. you never know when the person beside you (family or in public) would go

Kyle Kriticos so if a guy kills a person he can’t be killed for taking another life? I respect your opinion but I just would like to know why you think it’s wrong.

You have such a negative view of correctional officers. They keep wolves from sheep like you.

I agree with you: If all doctors refused to do lethal injection, then the correctional officers would be there to go back to electrocution or some other form. Lethal injection is one of the more humane ways to perform the execution.

@@allenz7688 The most humane way for individuals who commit inhumane acts against humane individuals.

Oh please, this guy isn't just making sure it isn't botched. He's been accused of providing the drugs to the states, that they otherwise couldn't get. He is doing harm, taking part in harm. His hands are bloody, even if his conscience is blank.

Have you ever heard about Hanna Arendt’s concept of “banality of evil”? On her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem, she understood that the nazis who executed millions weren’t psychopaths or monsters, they were farmers, bureaucrats, normal every day people. But they all had something in common: they were following orders. This also created the concept of “herd morality”, short speaking: people would do atrocities just because they were told so, without deeply reflecting about it. So I honestly think that doing something just because “it’s in the law” or it’s permitted doesn’t mean it’s ethical. Just something so you can reflect and think deeper about. Sorry for any misspellings, english is not my first language. Farewell!

The same argument can be made for the people carrying out the execution. "If executions are still going to happen, it might as well be that a person like me gets involved to make sure it goes smoothly for the benefit of the condemned." It is a slippery slope.

Victor They would still want executions. Most people that are for the death penalty don't really want the process to be humane. They want the prisoners to suffer. So if there was no doctor to smooth the event over as much as possible, they would be totally fine with that. In my personal opinion, it's a sickening mindset to have, but many have exactly that.

@@AmbyJeans But Amby, some people carry out monstrosities whose only punishment is death. Or how would you punish someone like Kenneth Mcduff?

Gabriel Lessa there is also a fascinating documentary on this premise ‘Caring corrupted’ on YT about Nazi nurses who began with compassion which was eventually eroded by the regime ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Rz8ge4aw8Ws.html

Gabriel Rader right on me too 😂

Yall not the only ones 😂

Just saw this on my recommendation page and I’m about to go to bed😆

@@lorimitchell9025 haha

I sleep too!

Unless Society needs to make an example of the condemned, it should be painless & quick. My grandfather wrote the medical protocols for treating concentration camp survivors for the US Army while serving in a Frontline Feild Hospital during WWII... No member of the public has seen the footage of a concentration camp at the point of liberation, as all the footage is after a few days of burying most of the dead. One of my grandfather's fellow Feild Surgeons lost it during one of the camp liberations, took a short walk, and put his 1911 in his mouth and his family was told he was killed by a stray bullet. The US used an incompetent hangman for its executions after the Nuremberg Trials, so the Nazis kicked and gurgled for a while due to being given too short of a drop... Our worst monsters need to have an example made out of them, to send a message to potential future monsters that we will have no mercy. Timothy McVeigh should have been given a very public execution and a short drop and being left up until the rope rotted, as he parked his truck bomb so that as many children in the daycare center would be killed as possible...

@@davidhollenshead4892 agreed

@@davidhollenshead4892an entirely different situation. No one needs to be executed in civil life.

You would feel the same if you had this job

yeah, it's called dollar signs, he's not a volunteer, he gets paid to snuff people out.

@@gibbsm he did say he wishes that he’s able to leave this profession. Is it so hard to believe a rich doctor also has a reason to maintain his moral beliefs? Wealth is not a guarantee of despicableness.

Yeah. He knows he’s a killer. He knows what he’s doing is wrong. You can see that.

lololololol

LoL

Just Jeff it.

Dr. Jeff* haha

Jeff Bezos killed my entire family in 2005

no it's not. To put it very simple he participated in the killing of a person. To say if he hadn't do it, someone else would, is wrong. Under this premise you can do whatever you want. Given the limited number of qualified individuals and the fact that they are part of a group that took the Hippocratic Oath, it is possible that the state could not have carried out these death sentences. Take, for example, the case where the death penalty was skipped because Europe was not supplying the poisons needed for the trial.

@@genki2705 Just shut up

@@genki2705 well take for example when there are no doctors and they use bullets instead

@@LukasOHS Some people on death row would prefer bullets to lethal injection.

lets not lose track of the maths. every taxpayer and voter is involved in the systematic retribunal execution of another for reasons. reasons that i contend are bad. one's only option is to not feed the construct in every way that one does. you may spend a lifetime and not know all the ways that you contribute to anothers demise. gotta get yourself out of the matrix per say

I don't really care because imo a botched execution by the state is just as unjust and wrong as a non-botched execution. Don't make it any easier for the state to take citizens life.

@@airhab You would care if it was you who's about to be executed. Take your false morality somewhere else.

NightMusic1 except they may not be.

@ excepte the one who are found innocent after their death

@ 4% of people on death row are likely innocent. That's not an insignificant percentage.

He has a really nice house too. Gotta pay them bills......

He’s just another killer.

@@peteconrad2077 😂😂 no he’s not. He’s helping people die with some form of dignity considering they were going to die anyway.

I agree. But I suppose the argument is that, well, what if new evidence surfaces and they are found not guilty? If they're in solitary confinement they can be released and compensated. If they got the death sentence, they're just dead. Nothing can be done anymore for them. I don't disagree with capital punishment. Some people just don't deserve to live. Child molesters, rapists, murderers... they deserve to be put to death. However I do think the evidence should be overwhelmingly clear for a judge to sentence someone to death.

Sounds great, you can be the one to pay for his stay

aaron begon Life sentences are cheaper then death sentences due to the significantly longer legal process.

cost too much money to keep that many ppl

@@aaronbegon2092 ironically, it costs more to process an inmate for death row then to let them rot their entire life away...to include the trial, extra appellate processing, and facility maintenance.

Amen

Nobody likes capital crime.

@@Mr3344555 54% of people in the US approve of the death penalty.

I approve 😃

@@CIARUNSITE You may want to read Mr3344555's comment again. It doesn't say what I think you think it said. Your response was non-sequitur.

From my studies, people in death row are murderers. Most often serial killers in the US

Frances Sweeney i agree but it is a brutal moral dilemma

A medical "technician" does not start IVs or give medications, including lethal injection. It would be the responsibility of a doctor and/or a nurse. The physicians are in fact the ones ordering the medications and assuring the correct doses are given, along with the nurse and a secondary physician.

Are these advocacy groups that protest this doctor protesting abortion clinics? If they are pro-life- okay. But if they are "pro-choice"- then they are hypocrites.

Idc about this ethical bs. They are all in the same boat. Death penalty should be abolished, consequences are far too severe if someone is sentenced to death but not guilty

@@MrGrasburg Yeah obviously dude, no one wants the death penalty. The problem is, even if you don't want death penalties to be a reality, the matter of fact is that it is and it will still happen regardless of your beliefs. Hence since death penalties remain, the doc wants to at least make it as swift and as painless as it can be for the patient. So instead of telling him to "stop conducting executions", which won't fix the issue at all, the focus should be on fixing the root of the problem, the fact that death penalties remain.

Can i get a travy patty before i go sicko mode???

sucko mode

I would, to the people who assaulted me, my mother and my friends. Easily. And why should the criminal not suffer the consequences of their action and go sleep-sleep easily but the victim has to live with therapy, drugs, trauma, depression for life and likely s**cide over the life long damage?

@@DivineLightPaladin I agree 100%. The original commenter likely hasn’t experienced anything severe enough to truly know what they’re saying here. I have no doubt that if I were murdered (or worse), any one of my family members would be happy to press the button. And I would for them

It can be if they confess.

@@caitolent Confessing is famously unreliable, interrogators force confessions on the regular

What about video proof?

Meh. Then everyone should just get away with everything? Disagree still. So if you have a video of someone stabbing someone else and the victim says yeah that guy did it, is there still a chance he didn't do it? Yeah no.

You explained this beautifully and it's always been a strong belief of mine, but you worded it perfectly. For the same reason, I've never agreed with death penalty either.

So many people care about the prisoner suffering. I care about the suffering inflicted on the victims.

@@jenv2402 ...... and do you actually believe their suffering is ended by the death of the prisoner? It most assuredly is not.

@@SpeccyMan the victims are dead. As far as their friends and family, no, their trama will never completely go away. I wasn't commenting on that.

Truth to that

I think that some people deserve to suffer for what they have done

From a utilitarian perspective - and one that I ascribe myself to - the wrongs of killing an innocent man far outweigh the rights of killing a bad man.

katie lister I am from a country that does not have capital punishment and sees it as barbaric. The way I see it is even the horrible murderers are in some ways getting an easy out by execution. Life long loss of liberty forces the person to reconcile who they really are and spend a life time facing up to it. There also are some murders where there is a reasonable shot at some kind of redemption.

The guy in this case confessed.

If you’re a liar and you believe lying is wrong, but you yourself lie due to the liar lying… makes zero sense. I totally understand the concept behind death penalty, yet in reality it’s just showing us that people say murder is wrong and shouldn’t happen, yet they’re ok murdering in return. Sends quite an interesting message.

I feel like you too, conflicted but crimes/murder against children and the elderly deserve capital punishment.

Every person involved is participating in a murder. They tell themselves lies to make themselves feel justified. At the end of the day, they’ve all done the same exact thing they say is “wrong”.

How do you feel about what murderers do? That all ok with you?

You're a simp

AwesomeDude333 Only more compassionate.

Whole time I was thinking that.

Maybe he needs a side gig because of his divorce.

And looks like it two

But there doctors who perform abortions, what's the difference?

Changeling nerd

Federico Olivares lol 😂 that made my night

@Changeling sure buddy, whatever makes you sleep better

@@thelaniakean thanks!

That’s hilarious! 😂😂😂

Why don't you read about the victim.

Agrees sickening isnt it the religion that says these scum will go to heaven but Dahli Lama suffers eternally

Heh, that was kinda funny

Dead right

What about a victim who's body is dismembered? Did they want to die that way or a peaceful way?

idk i feel like thats a really hard job to have an he deserves to get paid well. i dont support the death penalty but in my eyes hes doing a humane service and it must be very taxing and he deserves to make a good living w that service. and him having a business that employs others to do the same, seems along the same vein of humanity.. to me sounds like his line of work is not the issue..

@@saradean6592 You might be right. I don't know. I just thought it was important to mention that it's not just his job, but his business, too.. That's another variable to consider. We may never know the ultimate truth about him

That says a lot about society

Very negative mindset there, you doing alright?

Not true but ok

I know, it's a horrible situation. Although I do see where he is coming from, most prisons don't even have medically trained people administering the drugs so the executions are often botched. I don't think the doctor agrees with capital punishment, he just thinks that if it is going to happen then he should make sure the people aren't being tortured while being executed.

Because they're pro-birth, not pro-life

@@a_grape_in_space1016 exactly

Not all of us feel that way. I am pro-life and also anti-death penalty. No one has the right to take someone else's life.

@Sophie S When people complain about taxes you sound not that educated. Where else do you think the money is supposed to come from? Also, it is cheaper to have someone locked up for life. Finally, can you explain how it is torturing society? No one really cares about the prisoner for their whole life.

@Sophie S The trial is much more expensive. Google it if you want more information but the trial is expensive because you have to pay for the judge, the jury, and if they are facing death their trial takes much longer.

@Sophie S that is kinda the point... and what do you mean in the long run. Court fees are more expensive. Google it all.

@Sophie S deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/costs just use this site. It explains everything. Also dont you think it is immoral to take someones life?

Sophie S It costs upwards of 50,000 dollars per year for a prisoner, and capital punishment trials are deciding weather if it’s life or death, so the cost is the same.

Criminals on death row gets more appellate review and scrutiny. Oddly enough, an innocent person on death row is more likely to be released while an innocent person without a death sentence is more likely to rot the rest of their life in prison.

@@allenz7688 agreed, my point is our justice system is based on how much cash you have to mount in your defense. If your poor you cant afford good legal consultation. Even tbough death row inmates get more chances to appeal their cases i still believe we execute a few innocent people that slip through the cracks. I oppose the death penalty because i dont think the justice system gets it right all the time and even one innocent person being killed by the state is to many.

@@freeplax17 I agree that money is a person's best defense, sadly. I oppose death row because it has become an absurdly expensive process. Unfortunately, that would mean that more innocent people rot away in jail, so I'm very conflicted. =(

@@allenz7688 At least life sentence give innocent people time for new evidence to arise, the death penalty is final no matter what arises later.

@@airhab And I wonder how this doctor would feel if he found out that he executed an innocent person, even if he did it in a way that reduced the person's suffering.

Why. Hes violated the hippocratic oath many times over.? He's no angel...hes a disgrace to his profession

I did some research, it's only between 39.000$-50.000$. Sure that's not nothing..but I thought it'd be more.

@@alessias.4733 per year? Per execution?

@@Bluyless Government employees are paid per year (no commission bonuses). $50,000 sounds way too low for a doctor's salary. According to glassdoor, doctor salaries are between $150,000 and $300,000 in Georgia. As it is a government job, he is likely on the lower end of that range.

@@allenz7688 He owns a prison healthcare company with multiple government contracts, the salary he gets for doing the injections would be nothing compared to the profits he makes off his company.

@@MikeY-iw3uy From what I see online and what was stated in the video, you are correct. He is President of a company called Triage Holding, Inc. which is part of a larger organization called CORRECTHEALTH, which he founded in 2000. Do you think delivering lethal injections helps or hurts his firm overall? He obviously had (at least some of) the contracts before he started doing the lethal injections.

You eat meat ?

I confirm this

So

... or even working citizens of the US, for that matter. At least they get medical care. A person can work full time and still not be able to afford medical since all of that money goes to merely keeping a roof over their head. In fact, people have gone to prison solely for the desire to get medical care.

I am not American so I genuinely apologize in advance if my point of view is flawed due to limited knowledge of the American justice system. The way investigations and technology have advanced, I believe finding the culprit has become much more accurate than it was some decades ago, especially with the advancement of DNA analysis and also I think (again, I might be wrong) trials nowadays drag over a longer period of time than they used to. Definitely at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, when death sentences were given out like Halloween candy, trials seemed to last for a short time and they often sentenced someone without much evidence and sometimes even based on faulty eyewitnesses and false confessions. But nowadays I think that is extremely rare. Take Christa Pike's case - she killed a fellow teenager in the 80s and taunted and tortured her before she did so. All because she believed she was trying to steal her boyfriend (she wasn't). She got the death penalty and is still awaiting execution. Every evidence led to her and there was no denying she did it because she actually kept a piece of Coleen's (the victim) skull as a souvenir. Do I believe Christa deserved the death penalty? Yes. Tiffany Cole killed an elderly couple that had helped her in the past because she wanted to steal their car and their money. The couple got buried alive. She denied having a big part in the murder (her boyfriend and another guy helped), but she spent the Sumners' money and then called their bank after a few days because the bank had put a hold on their credit cards, trying to milk that cash cow further. She was also the only one who personally knew the Sumners. There's no denying that she had a big part in the killings. Do I think she deserved the death penalty as well? Yes. I am aware that incorrect sentencing happens, though I really want to believe it's much, much rarer nowadays than it used to. But would I want to be in the shoes of someone wrongly sentenced? No, not at all. See, it's a bit of a grey area here. I agree with the death sentence in the cases of violent and premeditated killings, serial murders, and child molesters. I also definitely agree with it if ALL evidence points to the suspect and they are without a doubt guilty. But I also know some things slip and innocent people can be wrongly sentenced. It's a very sensitive topic and I hope I have not offended you or anyone with what I have said.

@@floraflowers I agree entirely. Of course, I didn’t want to put my opinion in the comment for sake of being unbiased

Death row opponents are against violence , I’d be more scared of pro death penalty ....

@@salvolondon smooth brain take.

What do you mean? His company provides legitimate health care to prisoners, irrespective of his separate role with capital punishment.

@Jon Bradfield and we love u 2!

@Main Street Boxer Just because I prefer that executions be competently carried out rather than incompetently carried out doesn't mean I support the death penalty. It is not realistic to suggest that there could be a scenario in which everyone refused to perform the task of execution. If the death penalty is allowed by law, there will always be someone willing to do the job. It is best, then, to ensure that the individual in question is medically experienced and will perform the most professional, humane execution possible.

@Main Street Boxer Anti capital punishment is anti victim. You care more about the killer's life than the life they took.

Thats why we need to reform the prison/court system. However, the truly guilty need to remain.

Then get your PATHETIC legal system sorted out

I mean people receiving capital punishment are monsters, so maybe it’s kinda gratifying in that regard

Im saying!!!

@@ferkinderkin3165 The majority of the time yes but sometimes no, falsely convicted or mentally ill lunatics.

That's cheap compared to keeping these savages alive.

@@flippedoutcookie You would think a country that wants to execute people with lethal execution drugs would at least manufacture the lethal execution drugs. The United States doesn’t make anything not even lethal execution drugs. Shameful

@@thedevilsadvocate5210 International banking is beyond any government and the US has fulfilled it's purpose of helping to rebuild the world after WW2 and is now being drained to industrialize other nations. If Trump is a liar then this nation is as doomed as before because if he won't bring jobs and industry back then the US will continue to be sold out. It is shameful, but these plans were laid out long before either of us were alive and there isn't a thing we can do except partake in rigged voting.

In my opineon the concept of always paying back to others what they did to you lets you fall into the cycle violence created by nature. Its intellectualism that make this world a better place not emotions and justice.

Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just pointing out that the reasoning behind the quote “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” is literally incorrect.

Probably means that it's a fair and justifiable punishment. I'm not a mother, but I could never be able to do this. Even though I'm not a mother, I still have motherly instincts inside of me.

U really think anybody would take on hundreds of thousands in debt for 10+ long straight years if they weren't gonna make close to half a mil a year lmao. Pretty sure he's doing it for the public service student loan forgiveness program too

true, but it seems that he could have made even more elsewhere(as a doctor) in like a prestigious or private hospital

His company provides health care in 40 prisons in 4 states. Executions are just a small part of his work.

100% disagree If someone rapes kids and then ties them down and then lights them on fire to be burned to death they deserve to die.

@@mattfishfrog5797 Yes, because comitting a killing cancels the other one out right? You know, that innocent people have been executed? In your name.