- A team from the University of Miami looked at information
on anaesthesia and awareness in prisoners.
-
- They suggest some suffer unnecessarily, and claim standards
do not meet those for putting animals down.
-
- The researchers, writing in the Lancet, call for the
use of lethal injection to cease to prevent "unnecessary cruelty".
-
- 'No observation'
-
- In America, lethal injection is the most common way that
people are legally put to death, largely because it is seen as relatively
humane and does not violate the US Constitution's Eight Amendment, which
prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
-
- Prisoners are first given sodium thiopental, which acts
as an anaesthetic before pancuronium bromide is given to cause paralysis.
Potassium chloride is then given to cause death.
-
- Without anaesthesia, the person would experience suffocation
and excruciating pain - but would not be able to move.
-
- The researchers collected information from the states
of Texas and Virginia, where around 45% of executions in the US are carried
out.
-
- They also interviewed officials involved in executions.
-
- It was found that most had no training in executions,
and that drugs were administered without any direct observation, physical
examination or electronic measurement.
-
- The researchers said that it appeared executioners assumed
prisoners had been anaesthetised successfully if they were given the standard
dose of thiopental.
-
- But they warn this might not be true if the drug is given
incorrectly, or if the execution takes longer than anticipated. Anxiety
of serious substance abuse can also affect how high a dose the prisoner
needs.
-
- 'Stain on US record'
-
- The researchers then analysed autopsy data for 49 prisoners
who had been executed in Arizona, Georgia. North Carolina and South Carolina.
-
- They found that concentrations of thiopental in the blood
were lower than that required for surgery in 43 cases. In 21 of those,
the concentrations in prisoners' blood were consistent with them being
aware of what was going on.
-
- Writing in the Lancet, the researchers, led by Dr Leonardis
Koniaris, said: "We certainly cannot conclude that these inmates were
unconscious and insensate.
-
- "However, with no monitoring and with little use
of the paralytic agent, any suffering of the inmate would be undetectable."
-
- They add: "The absence of training and monitoring,
and the remote administration of drugs, coupled with eyewitness reports
of muscle responses during execution, suggest that the current practice
for lethal injection for execution fails to meet veterinary standards."
-
- In an accompanying editorial, the Lancet said: "Capital
punishment is not only an atrocity, but also a stain on the record of the
world' most powerful democracy.
-
- "Doctors should not be in the job of killing."
-
- American Medical Association ethical guidelines bar physicians
from taking part in executions. But a survey has shown that 19% were willing
to inject lethal drugs.
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- © BBC MMV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4444473.stm
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