Tuesday, September 30, 2003; Page A18

Often lost in the legal wrangling over the juvenile death penalty ["Legal but Wrong," editorial, Sept. 19] are the voices of physicians and other health professionals who are uniquely qualified to clarify this controversial issue.

The Post is right that it is abhorrent to impose capital punishment for crimes committed by children. While the juvenile death penalty is tolerated in this country because of the misguided assumption that 16- and 17-year-olds are "adults," it is prohibited in almost all other countries.

Health professionals across disciplines know that this basic assumption is patently false. Through clinical experience and research we know that teenagers' brain structures and mental capacities are works in progress, developing toward adulthood but by no means having achieved it.

Key traits of adult maturity -- including control of impulses, awareness of risks and anticipation of consequences -- are not fully developed in adolescents. Their crimes demand accountability, but they cannot justify this cruel, unusual and irrevocable punishment.

ROBERT LAWRENCE

Baltimore

The writer was president of Physicians for Human Rights from 1998 to 2002.