A new report released by Amnesty International, Execution by lethal injec­tion — a quar­ter cen­tu­ry of state poi­son­ing, calls on med­ical pro­fes­sion­als to refuse to par­tic­i­pate in exe­cu­tions and details ongo­ing con­cerns about cur­rent lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols that could result in inmates feel­ing excru­ci­at­ing pain dur­ing their exe­cu­tions. ​“Governments are putting doc­tors and nurs­es in an impos­si­ble posi­tion by ask­ing them to do some­thing that goes against their eth­i­cal oath. … Medical pro­fes­sion­als are trained to work for patients’ well-being, not to par­tic­i­pate in exe­cu­tions ordered by the state. The sim­plest way of resolv­ing the eth­i­cal dilem­mas posed by using doc­tors and nurs­es to kill is by abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty,” said Jim Welsh, Amnesty International’s Health and Human Rights coordinator. 

In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing a thor­ough review of the lethal injec­tions issue, the report details botched exe­cu­tions that were not per­formed by trained med­ical per­son­nel. It also exam­ines the three-drug lethal injec­tion cock­tail that includes sodi­um pen­tothal (an anes­thet­ic), pan­curo­ni­um bro­mide (a par­a­lyt­ic agent), and potas­si­um chlo­ride (stops the heart and caus­es death). Almost all states use the same 3‑drug com­bi­na­tion for lethal injec­tions. Medical pro­fes­sion­als and orga­ni­za­tions have raised con­cerns that inmates are not ful­ly uncon­scious when giv­en drugs to stop the heart and lungs, a prob­lem that could result in excru­ci­at­ing pain. The inmate would not be able to indi­cate pain due to the sec­ond drug that paral­y­ses the mus­cles. Amnesty notes that these same drugs were once used by vet­eri­nary sur­geons on ani­mals for euthana­sia, but now are pro­hib­it­ed for use on cats and dogs because of the poten­tial pain they might cause.

​“There is a glob­al con­sen­sus with­in the med­ical pro­fes­sion that the involve­ment of health pro­fes­sion­als in car­ry­ing out an exe­cu­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly by a method using the tech­nol­o­gy and knowl­edge of med­i­cine, is a breach of med­ical ethics; yet health pro­fes­sion­als are par­tic­i­pat­ing in such exe­cu­tions,” Welsh stat­ed. ​“Professional bod­ies have recent­ly spo­ken strong­ly about this abuse of ethics.”

Amnesty reports that 1,000 peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion glob­al­ly since 1982.

(Amnesty International Press Release, ​“World: Medical pro­fes­sion­als break eth­i­cal oath with lethal injec­tion, October 4, 2007). Read Amnesty International’s press release. See also Lethal Injections and Resources.

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