It is being widely reported in the press that drug manufacturer Pfizer is putting restrictions on the sale of its drugs to prevent them being used in executions. However, no press release to that effect is on their press release page as of this writing.
I was not aware that any state was using a Pfizer-brand drug, so the impact is unclear. There may not be any impact at all.
The states most actively carrying out executions have been getting their drugs from compounding pharmacies. The statement by the opponents that Pfizer's action drives the sourcing "underground" is nonsense. There is nothing "underground" about compounding pharmacies.
The lethal injection drugs of choice remain thiopental and pentobarbital, and all we really need is for Congress or the Supreme Court to abrogate or overrule the D.C. Circuit's wrongly-decided Cook case so that imports from Asia can resume. Any questions about purity or potency can be easily resolved by testing.
I was not aware that any state was using a Pfizer-brand drug, so the impact is unclear. There may not be any impact at all.
The states most actively carrying out executions have been getting their drugs from compounding pharmacies. The statement by the opponents that Pfizer's action drives the sourcing "underground" is nonsense. There is nothing "underground" about compounding pharmacies.
The lethal injection drugs of choice remain thiopental and pentobarbital, and all we really need is for Congress or the Supreme Court to abrogate or overrule the D.C. Circuit's wrongly-decided Cook case so that imports from Asia can resume. Any questions about purity or potency can be easily resolved by testing.
from Dudley Sharp
Humor?
Let's see what was relevant and not reviewed.
Lethal injections began in 1982. Pfizer waited 34 years, why? Guess.
The best lethal injection drug, now, is pentobarbital, not controlled by Pfizer or any other company, as Pfizer well knows.
The Hippocratic Oath bans both euthanasia and abortion, not the death penalty (1).
Do Pfizer and other drug companies ban the use of their drugs for abortion and euthanasia? Of course not.
Renamed - The Hypocrisy Oath (1).
" . . . in 1995, a report in JAMA said that, "Over a million patients are injured in U.S. hospitals each year, and approximately 280,000 die annually as a result of these injuries."(1).
As a result, the drug companies have suspended their drug distributions to the hospitals/doctors with the highest rates of innocent patient deaths via drug/prescription errors - well no, not really, of course.
Innocents are more protected with the death penalty than without it (2).
"Do no harm"? Really?
Oh, well.
1) The Death Penalty & Medical Ethics Revisited
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-death-penalty-medical-ethics.html
2) The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-death-penalty-do-innocents-matter.html