On March 30, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion dis­cour­ag­ing phar­ma­cist par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions. The House of Delegates of the 62,000 mem­ber orga­ni­za­tion passed the pol­i­cy, which states, ​“The American Pharmacists Association dis­cour­ages phar­ma­cist par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions on the basis that such activ­i­ties are fun­da­men­tal­ly con­trary to the role of phar­ma­cists as providers of health care.” William Fassett, pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus of phar­ma­cother­a­py at Washington State University, draft­ed the pol­i­cy and said that the pol­i­cy only became nec­es­sary in the last few years as major phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have blocked the use of their prod­ucts in exe­cu­tions and states have turned to phar­ma­cies to obtain lethal injec­tion drugs. Fassett said, ​“It’s nev­er been legal in the U.S. to write a pre­scrip­tion to exe­cute a per­son. The basic fed­er­al law is that a pre­scrip­tion is to be used for med­ical pro­pos­es in the con­text of an estab­lished patient-physi­cian rela­tion­ship.” Thomas E. Menighan, Executive Vice President and CEO of the APhA, said, ​“Pharmacists are health care providers and phar­ma­cist par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions con­flicts with the profession’s role on the patient health care team. This new pol­i­cy aligns APhA with the exe­cu­tion poli­cies of oth­er major health care asso­ci­a­tions includ­ing the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology.” The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists adopt­ed a sim­i­lar res­o­lu­tion last week, stat­ing, ​“While the phar­ma­cy pro­fes­sion rec­og­nizes an indi­vid­ual practitioner’s right to deter­mine whether to dis­pense a med­ica­tion based upon his or her per­son­al, eth­i­cal and reli­gious beliefs, IACP dis­cour­ages its mem­bers from par­tic­i­pat­ing in the prepa­ra­tion, dis­pens­ing, or dis­tri­b­u­tion of com­pound­ed med­ica­tions for use in legal­ly authorized executions.”

(K. Bellware, ​“American Pharmacists Association Discourages Members From Providing Lethal Injection Drugs,” Huffington Post, March 31, 2015.) Read the American Pharmacists Association press release on the res­o­lu­tion. See Lethal Injection.

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