Whoever Supplied This Should be Prosecuted
I indicated in an earlier post that the United States was having difficulty in getting enough sodium thiopental to carry out executions. It now appears that a British company has supplied the drug. This is an extract from the BBC’s report.
Writing in the Guardian newspaper, a British civil rights lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, has called for the naming and shaming of the company as it was “making a business out of killing”.
“One question that immediately springs to mind is whether it is criminal for the British corporation to profit from such a killing: while the language is loose, EU Council Regulation 1236/2005 takes a step along this path, making it illegal to trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment…’
“When the veil of secrecy is inevitably sundered, this British corporation should be reminded that the medical profession boasts of a Hippocratic oath, not a hypocritical one,” he wrote.
I agree with Clive and will be writing to the company, when it becomes known.
The Anonymous Widower 
It does of course depend on whether the company knew what it was to be used for, unless of course there is only one possible use.
Clearly there are many dangerous substances and many of these have valid as well as invalid uses.
If the company knowingly sold the drug for the purpose for which it was used, then they are guilty as charged.
Comment by John | October 27, 2010 |
There is probably only one use these days, as there are much better modern drugs.
Comment by AnonW | October 27, 2010 |