Capital punishment is not a subject many people enjoy discussing because of its divisive and morbid nature.
But the United States reached an important milestone in capital punishment last week when Pfizer blocked the sale of its pharmaceuticals for lethal injection.
As a strong opponent of capital punishment, Pfizer’s decision to not sell its drugs to states for lethal injections is one step closer to the U.S. abolishing, or at least questioning, the practice, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
Pfizer joins a list of more than 20 U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies that have now refused to sell their drugs to states or countries that use lethal injection as a form of capital punishment.
Pfizer’s decision has wide reaching implications. Maya Foa, who works for a human right advocacy group called Reprieve, was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “all FDA-approved manufacturers of any potential execution drug have now blocked their sale for this purpose.”
Though it’s good all FDA-approved manufacturers can no longer sell drugs for lethal injections, that unfortunately means states now have to go to the black market if they want to continue executing people by lethal injection.
And you better believe some states are going underground for these drugs.
Although states such as Ohio, Arizona and Oklahoma have delayed executions for months because of drug shortages, other states have tried importing drugs from overseas that are not FDA approved.
Federal agents seized most of those imported drugs, but imagine if these drugs were used in executions.
The amount of botched and failed executions under lethal injection would only go up and become more inhumane as states try to use non-FDA-approved drugs.
I’m not saying the FDA is a monolith of food and drug safety, but I would rather states use FDA-approved drugs than drugs that have not been approved.
Many states, such as Utah, have adopted alternative methods, such as firing squads, the electric chair and the gas chamber.
But most states are scrambling to stock up on supplies and are concealing their methods of obtaining lethal injection drugs.
I don’t know about you but if having states go to the black market to get lethal injection materials after all FDA pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell those supplies doesn’t make you question the morality of lethal injection then I don’t know what will.
In an official statement issued May 13, the company said, “Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve” and “strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment.”
It is pretty telling when a multi-billion pharmaceutical corporation says capital punishment, at least by lethal injection, is morally corrupt.
But let’s think about it for a second.
Capital punishment by hanging, firing squad, the gas chamber and the electric chair don’t sound more humane than lethal injection. Based on this logic, I don’t think it’s a leap to say any form of capital punishment is inhumane and wrong.
People might think we aren’t required to treat criminals humanely because of their crimes, but the whole “an eye for an eye” concept has long been considered barbaric and does nothing to deter crime. It isn’t justice, and it’s time to put it to an end.
It’s high time the U.S. moves forward and starts working to abolish capital punishment. Thanks to Pfizer, we can all progress toward that goal.
rcm2@umail.iu.edu
@RachelCMiller1
