Instead of a carcinoma, that individual’s

dying of a court order.

But he’s still dying.

We’re trained do no harm, preserve life

whenever there’s any hope of doing so,

the concept of the Hippocratic oath and everything we

stand for medicine.

Medical organizations have strongly

worded opposition to physician participation in execution.

And believe me I’ve read them, and I understand them.

I just don’t agree with them.

I’ve almost had two different careers, an emergency

medicine career and a correctional medicine career.

If you were to ask me during residency or even shortly

after residency that I’d be working in a jail or prison,

I would’ve thought you crazy.

There’s just no way.

But indeed that’s where my career path took me.

[radio chatter]

Shortly after I had started working corrections,

particularly when our company started growing,

I got a phone call from the Department of Corrections

about helping out with the execution process, which

here in Georgia is lethal injection.

Sometimes in life you have to take the bad with the good,

and as part of being a leader, as part

of being a totality of a health care solution.

I called him back and I said, well, let me go witness one.

Watching a heart monitor, I kept

looking for panels to try to defibrillate the individual.

It was almost like a reflex.

The one thought I had over and over again was

if it were me there or a family member,

would I want somebody like me there?

And the answer was yes.

Absolutely.

I would want somebody like me there

if I had a family member who had done something horrible

and ended up on death row.

I’m not a advocate for capital punishment.

If it’s ultimately arbitrary and very expensive

and not necessary.

But that’s not — that doesn’t impact what I do and why I do it.

[Archival recording] “… five minutes elapsed time.

Stand by for the doctors are now

preparing to enter the execution chambers

to check for life signs.

One of the physicians is now in the process of doing this.

The first physician is still in the process

of checking for life signs.”

We first started doing it, we approached

is just a matter of fact of providing

health care in a correctional environment.

As our involvement became public,

I realized that this was as controversial

an issue as it was.

When local media leaked out that I was the physician that

was participating in the execution process,

I was contacted by advocacy groups

to stop my participation.

They oftentimes would protest in both my home and my office

and send me emails, get on me with social media,

and even challenge my license.

Their goal is to hopefully end capital punishment

by stopping the people who perform execution

and lethal injection services.

[news broadcast] “Travis Hittson is scheduled

to be executed tonight at 7:00.

The 45-year-old former Navy crewman

was convicted of killing fellow sailor

Conway Utterbeck in April 1992.

According to court documents — “

Quite frankly I’d love to hang up my cleats

and not do this anymore.

As long as there’s a need and as long as they’re

going to continue to perform executions in Georgia,

then I think those individuals on death row

deserve to have a physician present

at the time of their death.

[crowd singing Amazing Grace]

All right.

Perception is reality.

If most people believe in capital punishment,

that’s our reality today.

The medicalizition of execution

I think does impact public perception.

Does that make us more comfortable with capital punishment?

Probably.