This petition is to stop the use of lethal injection, and the use of pancuronium bromide, to execute human beings. Pavulon,which was a brand name for pancuronium bromide has been taken off the market in the USA, and the American Veterinary Medical Association for the euthanasia of animals does not allow it's use, and is banned for the use of animals in at least 19 states, although it's used for inmate executions. This drug can cause extreme suffering and act like a "veil" to witnesses because of it's paralyzing effect. This drug can make it impossible to be able to tell whether an animal is in fact conscious or unconscious.Pancuronium bromide can render an inmate conscious and aware but unable to speak or move.
Pancuronium bromide is one of three drugs used for lethal injection. The first, sodium pentathol, acts as an anesthetic to put the inmate to sleep, pancuronium bromide then paralyzes the muscle system so that the inmate is unable to move, the third drug potassium chloride stops the heart.
The ethical debate in medicine is that a physician who performs the injection is violating their medical oath to preserve life, and therefor technicians and others are performing the executions, and have caused many "botched" executions. They are administering drugs that normally a physician would do.
Studies have showed that autopsy results of executed inmates in various states found that 43 percent had concentrations of anesthetic in their blood so low that they may have remained conscious to the end. The medical journal editorialized, "it would be a cruel way to die: awake, paralyzed, unable to move, to breathe, while potassium burned through your veins." This goes against the 8th amendment which states: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
We the undersigned state there is no humane way to execute a fellow human being, and lethal injection is both morally, and medically wrong, and goes against the American Constitution, and demand all executions be stopped immediately.