My stories for American Medical News are now freely available for about 90 days after they go live on the Web site. So, I’ve decided to start posting the first few grafs and links to the stories here in case you’re interested in reading.

The beat — medical ethics, patient safety and health care quality — is pretty interesting because quite a few of the stories are of great interest to many people who are not physicians. A great example is this story.

The lede:

The only state medical board in the country with policy declaring physician participation in executions “a departure from the ethics of the medical profession” and grounds for discipline was rebuked in state court late last month.

Wake County (N.C.) Superior Court Judge Donald W. Stephens ruled that the North Carolina Medical Board overstepped its authority in threatening to punish doctors who take an active role in the death chamber. But executions in the state will not resume due to the pending cases of five North Carolina death-row inmates on lethal injection protocols.

Read the whole shebang.