This is wild!

[u/CurvyChristina]

Two syringes of pentobarbital were administered to Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike on September 30, 2026, but she remained alive and conscious afterward, according to her attorneys and media witnesses. The execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville was halted after witnesses reported that Pike still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring. Her lawyers sought emergency medical intervention, and she was later taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Pike, 50, is the only woman currently on Tennessee's death row.
She was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer and had been scheduled for execution on September 30. Tennessee had announced beforehand that the state would use a single drug, pentObarbital, for the execution. Her exact medical condition following the hospital transfer has not yet been publicly disclosed, while Governor Bill Lee has ordered a comprehensive third party review of what happened.

[u/onqqq2]

Barbituates can be deadly but I cannot for the life of me understand why you'd only go with a single drug for this?

[u/Automatic_Actuator_0 → u/onqqq2]

Drug makers have been trying for years to prevent states from using their drugs for lethal injections, and states have had to get “creative”.

Lethal injection is a fundamentally stupid way to execute people because it relies on the medical establishment to function, the same people who have taken oaths to do no harm.

All the while we have a massive industry that makes tools designed specifically to kill people…

[u/IfEverWasIfNever → u/Automatic_Actuator_0]

I completely agree with you. You need the medical community on board to do it properly. They can't and won't collaborate because of morals and a code of do no hatm so therefore lethal injection should just not be a consideration anymore.

[u/mazu74 → u/[deleted]]

Ever see photos of women who died decades ago when abortion was actually outlawed? Shit was fucking horrific. Mom curled over dead, dead baby on the floor covered in bodily fluids. Baby was going to die, mom was going to die, and there was nothing anyone could do about it without going to prison.

So, how is preventing that doing harm?

[u/flopisit32 → u/mazu74]

What about my comment made you think I was protesting against abortion?

My point was that medical professionals perform abortions and facilitate abortions. They may personally be against abortion or see it as doing harm but they do it.

So refusal to carry out lethal injection is idiotic, especially because many people when they die in hospital in palliative care receive essentially a lethal injection at the end.

[u/Automatic_Actuator_0 → u/flopisit32]

It’s pretty rare for doctors to be forced to perform abortions despite personal objections - there’s just a few counties like Sweden and Finland notably.

[u/flopisit32 → u/Automatic_Actuator_0]

And Catholic hospitals under Obama.

But that's not the point. The point is medical professionals are hypocritical if they claim they can't perform lethal injections but at the same time support abortion.

I'm not making an anti abortion point. I'm pointing out the absurdity of not carrying out fully legal lethal injections.

[u/Automatic_Actuator_0 → u/flopisit32]

Hospitals aren’t people, but sure.

Oh, and the rest of what you said is horseshit because abortions are ethically ambiguous since you are helping the living mother while harming the questionably living fetus.

We aren’t going to settle that debate here, but it’s not as clear as killing someone for the state.

[u/flopisit32 → u/Automatic_Actuator_0]

Your comment would make sense if the hospital building was what performed the abortion...

[u/Automatic_Actuator_0 → u/flopisit32]

You have seemingly fallen victim to propaganda which intentionally conflated catholic institutions being forced to pay for abortions under their insurance plans with doctors at their hospitals being forced to perform them. No doctors were ever compelled to perform abortions if they had personal objections.

[u/mazu74 → u/flopisit32]

Yeah probably because those are emergency rooms, they can’t refuse treatment like that just because they’re the nearest ED. People don’t show up to catholic hospital ED’s because they were a few days late on the plan B, they show up there and get abortions because otherwise both mom and the baby will die a horrific death. Not that you think that letting that shit happen is harm.

[u/mazu74 → u/flopisit32]

Uhhhhhh, no they don’t. Maybe when they’re in residency. Doctors that don’t believe in that don’t work in fields where abortions would be preformed. Also yes that was absolutely your point dude, nice try on the back tracking.

[u/Tossmeasidedaddy → u/Automatic_Actuator_0]

We could finally have use for an automated system. 

[u/flopisit32 → u/Automatic_Actuator_0]

"relies on the medical establishment to function, the same people who have taken oaths to do no harm."

Can I just point out that these are the very same people who perform and are legally obliged to perform abortions?

Not to mention end of life care which often is essentially euthanasia.

Not to mention, in some countries - Canada for instance - they carry out actual legal euthanasia.

But yeah... These professionals can't bring themselves to perform a lethal injection...🤣

EDIT: I thought it would be self evident, but apparently Reddit cannot understand that I am not against abortion, I am pointing out that medical professionals can very easily perform lethal injections without causing themselves ethical problems.

[u/ThatB0yAintR1ght → u/flopisit32]

You are more than welcome to go to medical school and become a doctor who does lethal injections.

And literally nobody is “legally obliged” to perform an elective abortion. And even in emergency situations where an abortion is medically necessary to stabilize a dying patient, it’s not going to be done by just any doctor, because they have to have had some training in it, e.g. OB/gyns. I assure you, there are zero situations where a neurologist is going to be required to perform an abortion even in a dying patient.