Britain will ban the export of drugs destined for use in lethal injections and is pushing other European nations to do the same, business secretary Vince Cable said today.
The UK already has an ‘emergency export control’ in place on sodium thiopental. This was brought in amid widespread unease in the country about reports executioners in the US were sourcing the chemical from British companies.
Cable today announced that the government will be extending controls in the coming days to pancuronium bromide, potassium chloride and sodium pentobarbital, part of the ‘cocktail’ of drugs given in some US states as a lethal injection. This ban will then need formal parliamentary approval in the following 40 days.
“We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances and are clear that British drugs should not be used to carry out lethal injections,” he said. “That is why we introduced a control on sodium thiopental last year – the first of its kind in the world. And it is also why we are now controlling the export of the other drugs used in lethal injection in the US.”
Britain will also urge other European states to bring in similar controls.
Clive Stafford Smith, director of prisoners’ rights group Reprieve, which has lobbied for the ban, said, “Britain has now taken the lead in ending complicity in the US death penalty, which is very welcome. Since the US executing states are now turning to a Danish company, Lundbeck, to kill people, we must hope that the UK can persuade our EU partners to take a similar line.”
Cable insists that trade for the medical use of these drugs will not be hampered by the ban.
UPDATE – The Danish government is also making a stand on this issue. In a letter dated 12 April, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lene Espersen said she would request that America stops using pentobarbital from Lundbeck. The chemical is actually manufactured at a Lundbeck plant in the US, so its export cannot be banned by Espersen.
In an undated statement on its website Lundbeck condemns the use of pentobarbital in executions but says there are “no viable steps” it can take to prevent this use.
Image: An execution chamber in Oregon / Death Penalty News