Friday, March 24, 2006
Physicians' role in executions; Muslims & alcohol hand-rubs
A couple of non-palliative care related articles on ethics that I have found interesting this week--they'd make nice, light weekend reading.
1) The NEJM has a fascinating piece about physicians and their role in executions in the US (free full-text is available). The author has interviewed several docs who have done this and writes about the docs' perspective. There's also a terse and very readable history of the death penalty and physician's role in it in the US. Highly recommended.
2) Lancet has a brief overview of alcohol-based hand-rubs, and some Muslims' concerns about using these. It's part of an entire issue dedicated to medicine in the Islamic world.
