Kas Kristen, Yim Richard, Traore Salematou, ElFadaly Marwa, Lang Lynn, Freeman Robert A, Parmar Jayesh R, Kharel Madan K
University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, Princess Anne, MD 21853, USA.
University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, Princess Anne, MD 21853, USA.
Res Social Adm Pharm. 2016 Nov-Dec;12(6):1026-1034. doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2015.11.009. Epub 2015 Nov 26.
Lethal injection is the preferred method for the execution of condemned prisoners in the United States. A recent decision of The European Union to prohibit the export of drugs used in capital punishment to the USA along with domestic firms ceasing to manufacture these drugs has resulted in a drug shortage and a search for alternative drugs and new drug combinations that have not been previously validated for inducing death. As a consequence, some of the executions did not proceed as expected and sparked public debate regarding whether recent executions by lethal injection serve the purpose of avoiding "cruel and unusual punishment" in executions. Moreover, a cottage industry comprised of compounding pharmacies as emerged as a source of drug combinations used in capital punishment. Although there is a growing trend toward the abolishment of capital punishment in United States, the controversy concerning the efficacy of drug and involvement of health care professionals in the execution procedure is far from over.
注射死刑是美国处决死刑犯的首选方式。欧盟最近做出决定，禁止向美国出口用于死刑的药物，同时国内公司也停止生产这些药物，这导致了药物短缺，人们开始寻找此前未经验证可用于致死的替代药物和新的药物组合。结果，一些处决未能按预期进行，引发了公众对于近期注射死刑是否符合避免处决过程中“残酷和不寻常惩罚”这一目的的辩论。此外，一个由配制药房组成的小行业已成为死刑中使用的药物组合的来源。尽管美国废除死刑的趋势日益增强，但关于药物效力以及医疗保健专业人员参与处决程序的争议远未结束。
