Для тех, кто читает по английски

[antonborisov]

Все, что касается смертных приговоров в США (by lethal injection) путем введения в вену смертельной дозы медицинских препаратов.

Сейчас здесь развязалась дискуссия на эту тему, после нескольких не очень удачно приведенных в действие смертных приговоров.

Хочется при этом напомнить, что в каждом Штате США свои законы. Это касается и смертных приговоров.

Но, вернемся к Lethal injection.

Lethal injection is the practice of killing a person using a lethal dose of drugs administered intravenously. Two methods of lethal injection exist today, one using a three-drug protocol and another using one large dose of a barbiturate.

Each state that employs lethal injection is legally required to have detailed protocols for its practice, and though the set of rules differ from state to state, the process of killing a condemned inmate varies little, and begins with the lethal injection team securing the inmate to a gurney and connecting him to an electrocardiogram (EKG) machine that monitors heart activity. Inserted into the inmate’s veins are two intravenous lines (one as a backup) that lead out of a separate infusion room, where members of the intravenous team monitor the initial harmless saline drip.

At the warden’s signal, the execution chamber is exposed to witnesses in an adjoining room, and in states that use the three-drug protocol the inmate is injected with sodium thiopental or pentobarbital, anesthetics intended to put the inmate to sleep. Presumably after a member of the intravenous team determines the inmate is sufficiently unconscious, he is then injected with pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and stops the inmate’s breathing. In most cases, the inmate’s consciousness is again checked, and finally potassium chloride stops his heart. In ideal circumstances, death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious.

The process of lethal injection using just one drug follows nearly the same procedure, except the inmate dies from the one large dose of anesthetic, either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital.

Полностью

И, оттуда же.

Problems Associated with Lethal Injection

Two men from Georgia and one from Arizona were executed in 2011 using thiopental the states purchased from a DreamPharma in London. All three inmates reportedly kept their eyes open long after the sodium thiopental was administered, which indicates the drug was ineffective in sedating them. The inmates would then have experienced excruciating pain, but would have been unable to express it, while the two final drugs used in the protocol paralyzed them, stopped their breathing, and induced cardiac arrest. In cases such as these, protocols for assessing the consciousness of the inmates were not followed, calling into question how the rules can be reliably enforced. Without following the protocols, corrections officials unwittingly become torturers, as the drugs they administer cause inmates great pain.

Another issue surrounding lethal injection is the involvement of medical personnel. Though doctors and nurses are presumably the most qualified to administer drugs to an inmate, medical ethics preclude doctors from participating in executions. The American Medical Association issued a statement prohibiting physician involvement in capital punishment, saying it is contrary to the Hippocratic Oath and would erode the public’s trust in medical professionals. The American Nurses Association and the American Society of Anesthesiologists have both adopted similar positions. The result is that lethal injections are too often carried out by inexperienced technicians and orderlies, increasing the possibility of mistakes that can cause painful or drawn out executions.

A number of high profile executions have been botched when technicians inadvertently injected drugs into an inmate’s muscle or the execution team was unable to find a vein due to the inmate’s past intravenous drug use.

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