Reprieve, an international charity assisting people around the world facing the death penalty, has urged the Indian Government to take initiative to control the export of sodium thiopental from India to the US. They want the Indian government to intervene in this issue to ensure that the drug made in India would not be misused by the correctional services in the US for use in lethal injections to execute death sentences.

In the US, sodium thiopental is used as an anaesthetic along with pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride to carry out the death sentence by lethal injection. From some time now the US states are facing trouble in getting supplies of sodium thiopental after Hospira the sole manufacturer in the country announced that it will stop production of the drug entirely after a bid to start making sodium thiopental in Italy stalled when the Rome government said it would only issue license to manufacture only if the drug was not used in executions used in lethal injections.

Sophie Walker, investigator, Reprieve informed that since sodium thiopental is not manufactured in US any more, the correctional services in the US are trying to obtain this drug by importing it from other countries like India where it is widely used in hospitals.

Recently correctional service in Nebraska and South Dakota had imported 500 gram of sodium thiopental each from an Indian pharma company Kayem. However, the company came under severe criticism for its role in supplying this drug to these correctional centres for execution. However, after  facing stiff objection from the different quarters the company recently announced that it has stopped their supply to the US.

Walker pointed out that they are not against the use of these three drugs in disease management since they play a vital role in healthcare. However, their main concern is the way in which these drugs are being misused by different quarters for unjust reasons.

“The Indian drug manufacturers play a vital role in public healthcare around the world thus they shoulder a great responsibility to safeguarded life through the drugs that they manufacture than being the reason to take away any life. Our request to the Indian Government and the pharma companies is that they should not let profit come in the way of ethical thinking and should take an ethical stand by refusing to be a part of the system that believes in taking the life away.”

She informed that the Indian companies should do a thorough check before committing to any demands that come from the US prison or the US based companies for these drugs because chances are that these drug would be used to deliver capital punishment.

In November 2010, UK government had taken steps to control the export of this drug to the US and Reprieve is hopeful that the Indian Government will also take a similar stand. “We are trying to get in contact with the Indian government to discuss the seriousness of this issue and get their support as well,” Walker added.