from Christian Concern
The recent case of Christa Pike, whose execution failed despite the administration of lethal drugs, has raised serious questions about the reliability of the very substances commonly used in assisted suicide cases overseas. Isabel Jackson explores the reality that no lethal drug can guarantee the outcome campaigners promise.
The campaign to legalise assisted suicide relies on the promise that the drugs used to assist people to die will ensure a peaceful, dignified and controlled death for those that are terminally ill.
The public is often presented with this picture – that you’ll be able to take a harmless drug, fall asleep, and die without distress.
However, recent events in Tennessee put that narrative into question.
On 30 September, Christa Pike of Tennessee was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. According to reports, she was given two doses of pentobarbital but survived and was taken to hospital in critical condition.
The incident is so serious that Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has suspended executions for at least the rest of the year to find out what went wrong.
Humane?
The point is not that assisted suicide and the death penalty are the same.
But the drug behind both practices is a common factor, and in Switzerland, euthanasia clinic Dignitas uses Pentobarbital.
The significance of this comparison is revealed by the assumption that the use of these drugs always means a quick, predictable and humane death.
Reports suggest that execution staff in Christa Pike’s case struggled to establish intravenous access and that multiple needles were used before the drugs were administered.
Witnesses recounted that after initially remaining quiet, Pike cried out in pain and warned that something had gone wrong with the injection.
Despite the intention to bring about death, the injection did not.
And in a shocking turn of events, it has been reported that Pike has regained consciousness and is talking.
What was supposed to be a controlled procedure became a prolonged and distressing ordeal – one that Pike herself may well remember, along with all those who witnessed it.