Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Just In: Inmate To Be Killed With Versed/Midazolam

There's a huffpo article about a death row inmate who wants to donate his organs.  Look up "Ronald Phillips" in the crime section for the story.  They are planning on killing him with Versed/Midazolam along with a painkiller in order to harvest his organs.  Everybody who reads this blog KNOWS that the safe and effective "sedative" can kill you.  Despite the denials from medical workers that this is so, here is a prison execution chamber planning on doing just that.

Don't you have to be "brain dead" in order to harvest organs?  So is the Versed going to cause brain death?  Or is the painkiller supposed to cause brain death?  Are they planning on using the "sedation" to keep him still and the painkiller to keep him from screaming as they harvest his organs while he's alive?  Lots of questions on this one, but I wanted you to see how Versed is being used to kill people.

As I looked around the web I came up with this quote from another news article that had this to say:  "He will be injected with  a new lethal drug that is Midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller."  Versed has been lethal for a long time, but I guess DELIBERATELY using it to kill people is new.

Here's an answer to my question above about "brain death."  It's from the comments section of a news article on the subject.  "The method of lethal injection to be used in Ronald Phillips execution is a combo of Versed and Dilaudid.  This will be the first time this method is to be used in the lethal injection death of a human.  Both drugs will induce respiratory failure, creating hypoxia, which will damage the brain and stop the heart.  This is not going to be a quick process.  
I see many ethical issues with this new method."

The commenter above seems to have some medical knowledge AND a sense of ethics.  I too "see many ethical issues with this new method."  Of course *I* have an issue with Versed/Midazolam being used for any reason....ethical and otherwise.

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