Friday, September 20, 2013

Forced Drugs for Criminals on Death Row



Week #3    Article #1

1. The Dallas Morning News (Newspaper) 9-17-13

2. Category of issue: Health

3. Level: State/ National

4. An “enacted” policy that has been passed to help with a problem/issue that individuals/families face

5. How does this affect families/individuals?
    - Criminals that are on death row will be affected by this. The current policy that is being reviewed is to determine whether or not criminals will be forced to take their medication will on death row.

6. My Views:
    - According to this article "the Supreme Court has ruled that inmates must understand what death means and why the state wants to kill them before an execution can be carried out". Since this is the first know case in Texas, it is causing great moral questions. This is where the problem lies. The inmate in this situation is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic.  He has been refusing to take his medication and many times they have forced the medicine in him by way of needles. I don't understand why the Supreme Court has made this law. I know why it would seem that the inmates need to have clear understanding of why they are dying, but they should already be aware of this when they are sentenced. I think it is the right of the citizen to decide if they want to be totally medicated and fully aware of their death or not. So, in this situation I think that the courts should investigate this rule and consider the necessary precautions for execution. If it was going to cause a problem for the actual execution process that would be a different case.  Again as the article says, he should not be able to avoid he sentence because he refuses his medication. In this situation I don't think it matters whether or not Stanley knows what is going on because at this point he has done the crime, be proven guilty and he deserves to suffer the consequences.

1 comment:

  1. I do not understand why the Supreme Court made this law. Yes, the inmates should need to have a clear understanding of why they are dying, but if they are imprisoned, they should already know why they are in the circumstance they are in. I think the inmates should be able to be educated on the consequences of not taking their medicine, but as for "forcing" them to take their medications, I do not see the purpose in this. Stanley has already committed the crime, he knew his consequences when he was sentenced, and he deserves to carry out the full requirements of his sentence. I do not think that it matters if he is fully medicated or knows exactly what is going on.

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