The Medical Board discourages doctors from participating in execution because it is against their oath. (It is not illegal though, and they cannot suffer consequences for doing so).
Generally speaking, the only medically trained person that participates in an execution is the doctor who confirms death.
This means that it is usually untrained civillians who perform tasks such as inserting the IV line that administers the lethal injection. There are numerous examples of where the insertion was extremely difficult due to health issues or collapsed veins due to drugs etc - this draws out the process.
The process is supposed to be carried out without stress or discomfort for the offender.
As a general rule, no person can be forced to participate in an execution, that applies even to the prison officers/security guards who work in the facility where the execution will occur. Nor can an employee of such a facility be forced to guard/protect etc an offender on death row during their incarceration. This means that every person who participates in an execution is a volunteer.
There are exceptions to the above. In some states, the person filling the role of executioner is anonymous, however in some states it is clearly defined in the job description as one of their roles, for the superintendent of the prison.
This means that they are carrying out their role of executioner because this is what the law tells them they have to do. It's interesting that this argument didn't work for the judges at Nuremburg.
The executioner, does not actually kill anybody, they oversee the process and ensure that the correct procedures are followed, that all safety checks are performed etc. and that the paperwork is in order at each step of the way. In the case of lethal injection, their role is to prepare the drugs in an anti chamber and pass the drugs through a small hole in the wall into the execution chamber (up to a combination of 3 in some states, administerd seperately, not mixed. The first a tranquilizer, the second a paralizer, the third one stops their heart).
for lethal injection (considered to be the fastest and most humane way of death) 6 people are involved in strapping the offenderr to the guerney. Each participant has one specific job i.e to secure the strap that secures the left arm.
Following one offender literally catching on fire during an electrocution, standard procedure now includes removing hair from the offenders head and right leg and cutting the right leg of the offenders pants to knee level.
Following another incident where death was unneccessarily prolonged and the electric current was administered four times, only natural sea sponge soaked in salt water is used in electrocutions, (between the electrodes attatched to the head and right leg).
After electrocution, the body is so hot that it starts to cook and continues to do so as a result of latent heat for between 5 and 7 minutes, depending on the fat to muscle ratio of the offender. The more body fat a person has, the hotter they become.
Some people can go their whole lives and never really live for a single minute.
