Death to Lethal Injection

The assignment was to argue for or against a specific topic. Ms. Kress has provided our class with a wide variety of creative prompts that have grown my writing skills and helped me better understand different viewpoints. 

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Imagine being told you were sentenced to death. Horrific enough, but then when the time comes for you to be executed you are poked with a needle, the start of a process that should be short and painless. Instead, you are poked many times, the needle in the hands of an untrained and unqualified person. The operation should be over in 10 minutes or less. However, the most recent botched execution described in a July 29, 2022 article, “Alabama Execution of Joe Nathan James Marred by Failures to Set IV Line, Embarrassing Dress-Code Controversy, and Disrespect of Victim’s Family” stated, “it took Alabama officials between three and three and a half hours to carry out the lethal injection. A review of 275 botched U.S. executions since 1890 found that it was the longest botched execution on record.” This was the execution of Joe Nathan James Jr., who suffered for at least 3 hours before finally dying. This kind of horror to the victim could easily be replicated in the federal government's executions. The drug, phenobarbital, used in many of these executions, inflicts unnecessary pain on the victim which directly violates the 8th amendment forbidding cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty by the drug phenobarbital should be abolished because it violates doctor's moral codes, it is unconstitutional, and phenobarbital is in short supply.

The death penalty by the drug phenobarbital violates doctor's moral codes as they are forced to perform these injections. Mark Edgar, of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, in a September 21, 2020 NPR article, “Gasping for Air: Autopsies Reveal Troubling Effects of Lethal Injection” stated about phenobarbital executions: “[Executed inmates] would experience severe respiratory distress with associated sensations of drowning, asphyxiation, panic and terror," which is a horrible experience for the victim. The pain that patients experience is horrible and clearly inhumane. As if this isn't bad enough, doctors are forced to perform these painful executions. According to the article, “Lethal injection and physicians: State law vs. medical Ethics” these grim facts become apparent. "The inclusion of physicians in lethal injection medicalizes capital punishment by moving a process that has always been a function of the penal system into the domain of medicine." The integration of doctors in using the phenobarbital drug to perform these executions goes against their clearly stated moral codes. State Law vs. Medical Ethics | Death Penalty Information Center states these grim facts. "The American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) Code of Medical Ethics prohibits involvement of physicians in executions, permitting only certification of death after someone else has declared it." If this is the Medical Association's moral code, directly performing an execution obviously directly contradicts this code. If a person has to be executed, it should be performed with a method that doesn't involve phenobarbital or doctors. Doctors are the people that help save our lives and take care of us. How would you feel knowing that on the same day a doctor is saving your life, they are purposely ending another life? Doctors are supposed to save lives, not end them. 

Another issue with the use of phenobarbital in the death penalty is that it is unconstitutional. Dakin Andone of CNN, in an August 20, 2022 article, “Oklahoma, with a History of Botched Lethal Injections, Prepares to Start Executing a Man a Month” stated: “[O]ne of the drugs used in the protocol, would not render them adequately unconscious.... and could put them at risk of severe pain as they died...” and a “2014 execution.... began with officials struggling for 51 minutes to place an IV line on [an inmate’s] body to deliver the fatal drugs before placing the line in [his] groin. The inmate then writhed and moaned on the gurney for 43 minutes before officials called off the execution.” The pain that executed prisoners experience is a clear example of cruel and unusual punishment. This violates the Constitution as the 8th Amendment forbids the use of cruel and unusual punishment. The fact that the patient remains conscious during the execution is clearly cruel. The patient could easily be rendered fully unconscious. If the lethal injection is often botched and, in addition, sometimes the drugs used to knock out the inmate don’t take immediate effect, the inmate could be conscious for this painful and lengthy process. These are unnecessary horrors for the inmate and this method of execution should be halted immediately. Lethal injection by phenobarbital contradicts what our country stands for. We need to abolish this unconstitutional practice.

Lastly, there is a shortage of the drug phenobarbital. Kathleen Cooney, a member of the 2016 AAHA/IAAHPC End-of-Life Care Guidelines task force, in a May 18, 2021 article, “The Phenobarbital Shortage You Might Not Have Known About” stated: "A shortage of [the chemical] phenobarbital itself is the problem because it means pharmaceutical companies can’t make the phenobarbital solution.” This is a huge issue as phenobarbital is the drug used for lethal injections and the drug solution “is the number-one drug that we use here in the United States for companion-animal euthanasia." This makes it difficult to acquire phenobarbital and causes the price of the drug to go up. The shortage could cause the federal government to not be able to use this method of execution. It would then become difficult to conduct lethal injections because phenobarbital is the main lethal injection drug.

Some opponents claim that phenobarbital is less costly than other forms of execution such as the electric chair or a firing squad and, therefore, should be used as it is inexpensive to acquire. Phenobarbital is roughly half the price of other forms of execution. This claim gives false hope as we have already seen that there is a shortage of the drug phenobarbital. This shortage will inevitably lead to higher prices. Also, even if there was plenty of phenobarbital, the cost of the form of execution doesn't negate the arguments that lethal injection violates constitutional rights and doctors' moral codes.

The death penalty by the drug phenobarbital should be abolished because it violates doctor's moral codes, it is unconstitutional, and there is a shortage of the drug. It inflicts unnecessary and excessive pain on the victim, therefore violating the 8th Amendment of the Constitution. The drug is expensive to acquire and forces doctors to violate their moral codes. Lethal injections can go horribly wrong because they are difficult to execute. Therefore, the drug phenobarbital should no longer be used for death penalty executions.

Citations

Alabama execution of Joe Nathan James marred by failures to set IV line, embarrassing

dress-code controversy, and disrespect of victim’s family. Death Penalty Information Center. (n.d.-a). https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/alabama-execution-of-joe-nathan-james-marred-by-failures-to-setiv-line-embarrassing-dress-code-controversy-and-disrespect-of-victims-family

Andone, D. (2022, August 20). Oklahoma, with a history of botched lethal injections, prepares to start executing a man a month. CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/20/us/oklahoma-botched-executions-history 

Caldwell, N., Chang, A., & Myers, J. (2020, September 21). Gasping for air: Autopsies reveal

troubling effects of lethal injection. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/793177589/gasping-for-air-autopsies-reveal-troubling-effects-of-lethal-injection

Lethal injection and physicians: State law vs. medical ethics. Death Penalty Information Center. (n.d.). 

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/lethal-injection-and-physicians-state-law-vs-medical-ethics

The pentobarbital shortage you might not have known about. (n.d.). https://www.aaha.org/publications/newstat/articles/2021-05/the-pentobarbital-shortage-you-

might-not-have-known-about/