October 20, 2003 5:59 AM

Does barbarism when used to combat barbarism not also make us barbarians?

Experts question standard method of lethal injection: Chemical used in drug cocktail could mask suffering of inmate

(This post can also be found at Open Source Politics.)

The subject gives all the appearances of a serene expiration when actually the subject is feeling and perceiving the excruciatingly painful ordeal of death by lethal injection. The Pavulon gives a false impression of serenity to viewers, making punishment by death more palatable and acceptable to society.

- Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle

We pride ourselves on (or at least delude ourselves into thinking that we have reached the stage of) being an enlightened and humane society. Sadly, our approach to administering the death penalty would seem to put the lie to that delusion.

Yes, a murderer scheduled to die for his or her crime(s) may not present a sympathetic face, and there are those who would hold that such a person has no right to expect mercy and humanity. I would respectfully disagree. Are we, in administering the ultimate punishment, OK with the idea of causing what may in fact be a horribly excruciating and painful death? What does that say about us as a society?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- At the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution here, through a set of double doors next to several vending machines, a gurney stands ready to deliver prisoners to their executions by lethal injection.

Just about every aspect of the death penalty provokes acrimonious debate, but this method of killing, by common consensus, is as humane as medicine can make it.

People who have witnessed injection executions say the deaths appeared hauntingly serene, more evocative of the operating room than of the gallows.

But a growing number of legal and medical experts are warning that the apparent tranquillity of a lethal injection may be deceptive.

They say the standard chemical combination used to execute people in most states could, especially in the hands of inexperienced prison personnel, lead to paralysis that masks intense distress, leaving a wide-awake inmate unable to speak or cry out as he slowly suffocates.

In 2001, it became a crime for veterinarians in Tennessee to use one of the chemicals in that standard protocol to euthanize pets.

The chemical, pancuronium bromide, has been among those specified for use in lethal injections since Oklahoma first adopted that method of execution in 1977. Only now, though, is widespread attention starting to focus on it.

Spurred by a lawsuit by a death row inmate here, advances in human and veterinary medicine, and a study last year that revealed for the first time the chemicals that many other states use to carry out executions, experts have started to question this part of the standard method of lethal injection.

Pancuronium bromide paralyzes the skeletal muscles but does not affect the brain or nerves. By itself, it leaves a person conscious but unable to move or speak.

In Tennessee and about 30 other states, the chemical is used in combination with two others. The other chemicals can either ease or exacerbate the suffering the pancuronium bromide causes, depending on the dosages and the expertise of the prison personnel who administer them. A judge here recently found that pancuronium bromide itself has "no legitimate purpose."

An incidental effect of the drug, if not its purpose, is to suggest to witnesses that death by lethal injection is painless. It may be in many cases, but the drug, marketed under the trade name Pavulon, makes it impossible for observers to know.

The legality and morality of the death penalty are issues best left for another discussion. My concern is with the manner in which the death penalty is administered. In states that use lethal injection, advocates have long argued that it is the most humane and gentle way to carry out the administration of death. But is it really? Certainly, the inmate being executed in this manner may appear serene and peaceful as their final breaths exit their body. That outward serenity may in fact mask an excruciatingly painful and agonizing expiration.

If an inmate is subjected to paralysis while still being fully conscious, how are we to KNOW if that inmate is in fact expiring peacefully? Or is it really about deluding ourselves into believing that we are doing the right thing in a humane fashion?

The American Veterinary Medical Association condemns pancuronium bromide when it is the sole chemical used or when it is used in combination with the usual animal euthanasia drug, sodium pentobarbital. That is because, an association report in 2000 said, "the animal may perceive pain and distress after it is immobilized."

No thinking and feeling person would willingly cause pain and suffering to an animal. Why would we hold a human being, even a convicted murder, in any less esteem? The argument for or against the death penalty aside, don't we owe it to our own humanity to at least be certain we are not causing yet more pain and suffering? Or do we honestly feel that murderers are less worthy of consideration because of the savagery of the crime(s) they have committed? Our legal system has foresworn vengeance as a punishment tool- or has it?

I would submit that we owe it to ourselves, our children, and the rest of the world that views our capital punishment system as barbaric to be certain that we are at least doing the right thing in the right manner. That cannot, in all honesty, be said at this point in our history. We can, and do, deserve better from our correctional system.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on October 20, 2003 5:59 AM.

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