Issues with lethal injection execution are similar to euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The NPR reported on September 28, 2026, in response to the botched lethal injection execution of Tony Carruthers on May 21, 2026 in Tennessee that a group of medical professionals sent a letter to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee stating that heathcare professionals should never assist with executions.

Austin Sarat reported for The Daily Mail on May 26, 2026 that:

On 21 May, Tony Carruthers had an experience that few others have had. He was taken to the execution chamber, where the state of Tennessee began the process of putting him to death, but it failed to finish what it started.

Carruthers was not killed and he lived to tell about it. He became the ninth person to survive a failed execution in the last 80 years.

Botched executions are by now quite common in the United States. But on most of those occasions, the people whose executions go awry end up dead.

Catherine Sweeney reported for NPR that Dr Robert Quinn, one of the doctors who sent the letter to Governor Lee, stated that doctors should never participate in an execution.

He says that for one thing, the Hippocratic oath says, do no harm, and ethical codes, like the one put out by the American Medical Association, explicitly bar doctors from participating in the death penalty. The letter calls on Governor Bill Lee to place a moratorium on the death penalty and overhaul the state's execution method. They don't think executions should resemble medicine or involve doctors, nurses, pharmacists, or anyone else in healthcare. Dr. John Greer also signed the letter.

The death penalty and euthanasia (MAiD) both contravene the Hippocratic oath which requires the doctor to do no harm. 

Catherine Sweeney continued her NPR report:

Under Tennessee's protocol, other health workers, like nurses or paramedics, place IVs into the prisoner's arms. If they can't find a vein, a doctor must step in to insert a plastic tube, or central line, in a deeper vein. Regarding Carruthers' failed execution in May, the doctor said what he experienced was torturous. The IV team tried to access veins in his arms and failed. They tried his hands and his feet. Then the doctor tried a central line in Carruthers' chest and shoulder. His attorney, Maria DeLiberato, said blood was oozing from his puncture wounds.

...Finally, the governor's office called the prison. The governor was ordering them to stop. He gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve. The physician in Carruthers' execution,

The story about the euthanasia (MAiD) death of Brigitte Stegemann (83) who lived near Belleville Ontario presented a similar concern. The Daily Mail reported:

Once back inside the home, the nurse started the IV, Kranendonk alleges. According to Kranendonk, the doctor hadn't even arrived, and her grandmother was not asked if she gave consent for the procedure to begin.

The nurse struggled to insert the IV into Stegemann's right arm, and ended up piercing her repeatedly with the needle before attempting her left arm.

Kranendonk remembers in graphic detail the copious amount of blood, which made the whole procedure feel strangely unprofessional.

'She's asking us to hand her things, to flush out the needle. So we're now a part of this. She's asking us to grab things for her, and to hold things for her.

'This nurse is not wearing gloves. There's blood all over her hands, there's blood all over the place,' she says, horrified by the memory.

The letter to Tennessee Governor Lee also refered to the Post Traumatic stress that people have experienced after participating in a lethal injection death. The letter stated:

As medical professionals, we are also acutely aware of the risk of lasting trauma to all participants in the execution process. Many former correctional professionals have spoken out about the emotional toll of proximity to and participation in executions, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and suicidality. This risk is greatly exacerbated when executions go visibly awry, as in Mr. Carruthers’s case.

Whether or support or oppose capital punishment, the issues associated with lethal injection executions are the same issues that are associated with lethal injection euthanasia (MAiD).

The New York Times published a news article on June 11, 2026 by Rick Rojas and Abbie Van Sickle reporting that the Supreme Court appears to consider capital punishment by Nitrogen gas to be inhumane:

The Supreme Court’s decision was unsigned and included no reasoning, which is typical in such emergency rulings. Dissent came from three of the court’s conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch.

The Supreme Court decision blocked the nitrogen gas execution of Jeffery Lee (49) who will remain on death row in Alabama.

On September 24, 2024, euthanasia activist, Dr Philip Nitschke, assisted the suicide of an American woman (64) who died by nitrogen gas asphyxiation in the Sarco pod.

If capital punishment by nitrogen gas is inhumane then assisting a suicide by nitrogen gas is also inhumane.

The difference between capital punishment and euthanasia (MAiD) is that capital punishment does not require a person to request to be killed whereas euthanasia, also known as medical homicide, usually requires a person to request to be killed.

The method of killing for lethal injection executions, is the same method of killing for euthanasia.