New Medical Report: Inmates Likely Conscious After Execution Drugs Administered
A new report by the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, published in The Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, raises serious concerns that prisoners being executed likely are conscious after being administered the lethal drug cocktail that kills them. In the study, the group analyzed toxicology results from 49 executions:
The practice of lethal injection for execution perverts the tools of medicine and the trust the public has in drugs and clinical protocols. Although executioners use an anesthetic, the current dosages and means of administration do not assure that inmates are senseless to pain, particularly because inmates are not monitored for level of consciousness or depth of anesthesia,” said Leonidas G. Koniaris, M.D., associate professor of clinical surgery, cell biology and anatomy, and lead author of the letter.
“We found that 43 of 49 executed inmates had post-mortem blood anesthesia levels below that required for surgery, while 21 of those inmates had levels that were consistent with awareness,” said Teresa Zimmers, Ph.D., research assistant professor of surgery who analyzed the data for the research.
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