Medical Ethics and Capital Punishment

Question 1: How do you understand the physician's social role, and do you think it would be undermined by allowing physicians to participate in executions? Why or why not? Question 2: How morally important is it to conduct executions in such a way that the condemned do not suffer, and if that goal is important, what is the best way to accomplish it? Is physician participation necessary or helpful? Are there ways physicians might participate that would be more appropriate to their social role?