On pain of death: Forensic psychiatry and capital punishment

Abstract

Capital punishment is an emotive subject, both within society in general and within the field of forensic psychiatry. There has been much debate about the propriety (or otherwise) of participation by forensic psychiatrists around the world in this area of criminal justice. This paper seeks to contribute to that debate, by outlining the reasons why, in the authors' opinion, continued participation is not only proper, but ethically necessary. This position is adopted independently of the personal views of the authors, one of whom is opposed to capital punishment in all circumstances, and one of whom is not.

Keywords:

• Forensic psychiatry
• capital punishment

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Drs. Adrian Lord and Noam Trieman, and Mr. John Hoar, for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.