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| Death sentences are at a record low in the US this year |
After years
of calling for the death penalty to be abolished worldwide, the European Union
is taking concrete steps to impede executions, at least in the United States.
Starting
this Wednesday, US states that administer lethal injections will have to look
even harder to find a sedative legally required for the practice.
The
European Union on Tuesday ratcheted up export controls on sedatives such as
sodium thiopental, pinning European exports of the substances to assurances
that they will not be used in capital punishment.
"As of
today, trade of certain anesthetics, such as sodium thiopental, which can be
used in lethal injections, to countries that have not yet abolished the death
penalty, will be tightly controlled," a statement from the European Commission
said.
A shortage
of sodium thiopental, which is no longer produced in the United States, has
already led to delays and cancelations of executions in five states, according
to the US Death Penalty Information Center. The Center reported fewer executions
in 2010 over previous years, partly due to the shortage.
Sodium
thiopental is the first of three drugs administered in lethal injections to
stop breathing and heart activity. The main European producers of the drug are
in Britain, Italy, Germany, Austria and Denmark, an EU official said.
Dwindling
supply
Increasingly,
manufacturers of sodium thiopental are taking stands against its use in
administering the death penalty.
The drug's
only US manufacturer, Hospira Inc., announced in January it was halting the
drug's production, because it did not want it used in executions.
Earlier
this year, Britain imposed an emergency export ban to the United States on
sodium thiopental, along with three other drugs used in lethal injections.
Swiss company Novartis announced in February it had taken steps to prevent a
generic version of sodium thiopental from being exported to the US.
In April,
Indian drugmaker Kayem Pharmaceuticals also stopped its supply of the drug for
US executions, saying execution contradicted the "ethos of Hinduism."
However,
Danish firm Lundbeck announced in June that it would continue the sale of
Nembutal, generically known as pentobarbital - another drug that falls under
new restrictions - as some patients required it to treat epilepsy.
Capital
punishment is banned in the 27-member European Union, which since 2008 has
called for a worldwide stop to the death penalty.
Author: David Levitz (dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Michael Lawton
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