EU STICKS THUMB IN UNCLE SAM'S EYE

This is simply outrageous! The European Union, in effect, is interfering in the internal affairs of those American states that practice capital punishment.

If the EU does ban the shipment of sodium thiopental to the U.S., it will do so not because of firm opposition to capital punishment, but because it gives the envious Europeans a chance to stick it to mighty Uncle Sam.

Thanks to Dorina Lisson for the heads-up on this one. Dorina, my Aussie anti-death penalty friend, must be jumping up and down with joy.

EUROPEAN UNION RESTRICTS EXPORT OF SODIUM THIOPENTAL TO THE USA

Pushed by international human rights groups, the European Union is set to ban the sale to the United States of one of the main active substances needed for lethal injections. Sodium thiopental is already in short supply, and executions are set to be further delayed. The export of sodium thiopental will only be possible by special permission, beginning Friday, posing a major problem for the US justice system.

The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) is to publish a new, uniform set of authorized export regulations, valid for all short or intermediate-acting barbiturism acids. One of them is the easy-to-use and fast-working anaesthetic sodium thiopental, which is used to execute criminals in the states of Ohio and Washington. In 33 other states, sodium thiopental is a key ingredient in other toxic cocktails used to kill inmates. In the past few months, supplies of the drug have become scarce.

The only manufacturer based in the US, Hospira, is unwilling to continue to make its product available for lethal injections, and under American law it is not allowed to simply change the injection “recipe.” To do that, a complicated approval procedure is required. So authorities, which have been postponing executions as a result of the difficulty in finding supplies, have been seeking other sources such as those in the EU.

International anti-death penalty and other international human rights groups have pushed for the EU decision to now require special permission to export to countries outside of Europe. The most prominent supporter of the move is Germany’s Minister of Economy and head of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Philipp Rösler. In an earlier role as Minister of Health he had written to German manufacturers of sodium thiopental to encourage them not to sell the drug to the US. After changing jobs, he introduced to the Commission a bill to create a regulation valid Europe-wide that would effectively prevent the export of thiopental to the US. Initially, the proposal met with resistance from other states, but the majority of the 27 member states have now approved it.

(Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung)