Ethical Challenges for Medical Professionals in India: Role in Capital Punishment

Medicine is a noble profession. According to Hippocratic oath, every registered medical practitioner is supposed to help the sick according to his ability and judgment but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. In India, hanging is the only mode of capital punishment. Though there may be different opinions on death penalty the doctors involvement as mandated by the supreme court of India, in the process of hanging is unwarranted. On one hand, the involvement of a medical officer in the capital punishment is required to pronounce death. On the other hand, the mere presence of a doctor as a hangman's aid runs counter to the tenets of medical ethics. The present paper seeks to review the impact of doctor's involvement in capital punishment on the society and medical profession itself.