Judge blocks use of assisted suicide drug for execution.

The following article was written by bioethicist, Wesley Smith, and published on his blog on February 19, 2014.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley Smith

This is pretty rich. We are frequently told by activists that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, and indeed, that allegedly includes lethal injection.

Yet, many of these same advocates support assisted suicide–as in the ACLU.

Now, a federal judge has blocked a pharmacy in Missouri from selling a drug used in executions. From the StarTribune story:

A federal judge agreed late Wednesday to temporarily block an Oklahoma pharmacy from providing an execution drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections for use in an upcoming lethal injection. The temporary restraining order was issued after a federal lawsuit was filed in Tulsa by Missouri death row inmate Michael Taylor. 

His attorneys said the department contracts with The Apothecary Shoppe in Tulsa to provide compounded pentobarbital, the drug set to be used in Taylor’s execution on Feb. 26.

Interestingly, this is the same drug used in most assisted suicides in Oregon. So, once again we can call assisted suicide cruel and unusual death with dignity. 

There is too much irony in the world these days to take it all in.