Anesthesiologists' head counsels against role in executions

In a potentially significant development in the controversy overlethal injection executions, the president of the American Society ofAnesthesiologists has strongly urged members to "steer clear" of anyparticipation in them.

Dr. Orin F. Guidry, president of the 40,000 member group, posted afour page "Message from the President" on the organization's Web site(www.asahq.org), Friday saying that anesthesiologists had been"reluctantly thrust into the middle (of a legal controversy)," and itwas not their responsibility to solve problems created by thenation's judicial system.

"Lethal injection was not anesthesiology's idea," wrote Guidry,who works at Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans. "American societydecided to have capital punishment as part of our legal system and tocarry it out with lethal injection... . The legal system has painteditself into this corner and it is not our obligation to get it out."

In recent months there has been a flurry of litigation over lethalinjections. Lawyers for condemned inmates say that procedures beingused in states around the country might be causing unnecessary andexcruciating pain in violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibitionagainst cruel and unusual punishment.

U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. ordered a halt toexecutions in Missouri until the state makes major changes in itslethal injection procedures. The challenge was brought on behalf ofMichael Taylor, sentenced to death for the murder of a 15-year-oldgirl in Kansas City in 1989.

Missouri, like all other states that use lethal injection uses athree-drug cocktail: The first, sodium thiopental, is a sedative; thesecond, pancuronium bromide, is a paralytic agent; the third,potassium chloride, stops the heart from functioning.

Attorneys for Taylor assert that the third drug could causeexcruciating pain because of insufficient anesthesia from the firstand that he would be unable to say anything because he would beparalyzed by the second.

Judge Gaitan expressed serious concern that the physician who hasbeen administering the drugs during Missouri executions is anacknowledged dyslexic who has difficulty reading numbers. The doctoradmitted in a deposition that he had administered only half thenormal dosage of sodium thiopental in several recent executions.

Gaitan said that the state should make a board-certifiedanesthesiologist "responsible for the mixing of all drugs which areused in the lethal injection process. If the anesthesiologist doesnot actually administer the drugs through (an IV), he or she shalldirectly observe those individuals who do so."

The judge's order states that an anesthesiologist needs to certifythat the inmate has achieved sufficient anesthetic depth so as to notfeel undue pain when the potassium chloride is injected. Gaitan alsostated that it would not be a violation of an anesthesiologist'sethical obligations to administer lethal injections.