“Remember, no doctor is compelled to be present at an execution. Those who choose to do so believe that it is ethical… To punish them, it must be proved that medical ethics and presence at an execution are impossible to reconcile. But that’s clearly not true… At an execution, the state clearly has the right to take the murderer’s life. But it does not have the right to torture him, either by imposing excessive pain or by failing to complete the execution swiftly. The presence of a doctor is a guard against those eventualities. The fact that a doctor is present doesn’t make that doctor the executioner. Indeed, the protection against cruel and unusual punishment would seem to require that a doctor be present.”