text: can doctors really not assist with lethal injection? i just read an article that said doctors cannot be asked to participate in executions of death row inmates because the hippocratic oath states they must "first do no harm." is this true?  if so, let me get this straight. they can perform abortions all the way up until all but the baby's head has been delivered. the baby's only crime was being unwanted.   they can pull the plug on a woman who made no clear request to be removed from life support prior to being incapacitated. the woman's only crime was becoming incapacitated.   they can destroy human lives in the form of embryos for the wing-and-a-prayer hope that it might someday cure something. the embryo's only crime was being created in a lab.   but they can't help execute convicted rapist, murderer, etc. even after he or she has exhausted 10 years worth of appeals because they must "first do no harm?" what's wrong with this picture? executioners (the ones who administers putting in the iv's, etc) are usually prison personnel, or community related field such as paramedics, whom do not take the hippocratic oath. a coroner can pronounce the inmate dead.  it varies from state to state.