Today, however, we read that Ohio has effectively ended the death penalty, at least for the time being: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/06/26/ohio-yet-to-find-supply-of-lethal-injection-drugs-facing-january-execution-date.html.
Why? Because the combined efforts of medical professionals and the pharmaceutical industry have determined that lethal injection is contrary to the legitimate workings of medicine.
The American Medical Association has weighed in: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/opinion206.page?
Notably, this strong statement against the death penalty comes just paragraphs after their embrace of abortion: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/opinion201.page?
The New York Times recently highlighted the efforts of Pfizer to end its drugs from being used, even as components in other medicines or the compounding process, in any form of lethal injection: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/us/pfizer-execution-drugs-lethal-injection.html. According to a company spokesperson:
“A company in the business of healing people is putting its reputation at risk when it supplies drugs for executions,” Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller, said in an email. “The company is also risking association with botched executions, which opens it to legal and financial damage.”
Among the drugs that are made by Pfizer is Cytotek, the US brand name for misoprostol, an abortion inducing drug: https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=10644068-fa47-4e3b-9e93-f57ebac3dd17.
Why the double standard?