SHORTAGES of the anaesthetic used in lethal injections are causing US states to switch to untested combinations of drugs.
On 14 November, Ohio plans to execute murderer Ronald Phillips by injecting him with a mix of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone. How painlessly this combination kills is unknown.
Like several other states, Ohio's prisons have run out of the anaesthetic pentobarbital. In 2011, the sole manufacturer, Danish firm Lundbeck, said it would no longer sell to prisons in states with the death penalty. Arkansas has suspended all executions until an alternative is found, and other states are boosting supplies using compounding pharmacies.
Pentobarbital replaced sodium thiopental, the anaesthetic used until its manufacturer, Hospira, ceased production in 2011.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Untested execution"
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