The shortage of traditional execution drugs available in American death penalty states has sparked serious health, safety and human rights concerns with the adoption of new lethal injection protocols relying on unregulated and untested execution drugs.
Most United States executions are lethal injections, which traditionally involve administration of a combination of three drugs: an anesthetic like sodium thiopental or pentobarbital to render the prisoner unconscious; a muscle relaxant like pancuronium bromide to paralyze the prisoner; and potassium chloride to stop the prisoner's heart. In recent years, some states have moved to a single execution drug protocol involving administration of a lethal dose of an anesthetic like pentobarbital or propofol.
Over the past several years, however, execution drugs have become harder for death penalty states to obtain as European drug manufacturers have faced mounting pressure to stop supplying lethal injections drugs to the U.S. The United Kingdom charity Reprieve's Stop the Lethal Injection Project (SLIP) has successfully led efforts to convince European manufacturers to cease production or shipment of drugs to U.S. prisons for executions. In January 2011, for example, American drug company Hospira stopped manufacturing sodium thiopental at its Italian plant, citing its desire not to supply the drug for U.S. executions. Similarly in 2011, Danish pentobarbital sodium manufacturer H. Lundbeck A/S ceased selling the drug to U.S. prisons in death penalty states. And in 2013, German manufacturer Fresenius Kabi, which supplies 90 percent of all U.S. propofol, halted shipments to a Louisiana distributor amid concerns that its drugs were being used not only in routine medical procedures, but in executions.
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Most United States executions are lethal injections, which traditionally involve administration of a combination of three drugs: an anesthetic like sodium thiopental or pentobarbital to render the prisoner unconscious; a muscle relaxant like pancuronium bromide to paralyze the prisoner; and potassium chloride to stop the prisoner's heart. In recent years, some states have moved to a single execution drug protocol involving administration of a lethal dose of an anesthetic like pentobarbital or propofol.
Over the past several years, however, execution drugs have become harder for death penalty states to obtain as European drug manufacturers have faced mounting pressure to stop supplying lethal injections drugs to the U.S. The United Kingdom charity Reprieve's Stop the Lethal Injection Project (SLIP) has successfully led efforts to convince European manufacturers to cease production or shipment of drugs to U.S. prisons for executions. In January 2011, for example, American drug company Hospira stopped manufacturing sodium thiopental at its Italian plant, citing its desire not to supply the drug for U.S. executions. Similarly in 2011, Danish pentobarbital sodium manufacturer H. Lundbeck A/S ceased selling the drug to U.S. prisons in death penalty states. And in 2013, German manufacturer Fresenius Kabi, which supplies 90 percent of all U.S. propofol, halted shipments to a Louisiana distributor amid concerns that its drugs were being used not only in routine medical procedures, but in executions.
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