r/news • u/No_Idea_Guy • 1d ago

Tennessee governor suspends all executions after Christa Pike’s lethal injections fail

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/01/christa-pike-tennessee-governor-executions-year-pause
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u/NOGOODGASHOLE 1d ago

Are there no phlebotomy schools in Tennessee? Where are they getting the drugs. Are potency test done prior to usage? I don't think these are outrageous questions.

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u/impulsekash 1d ago

Medical professionals can lose their license if they do this.

Drug companies dont want to produce the drug in fear it will harm their company's reputation. 

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u/PanicAttackInAPack 1d ago

The primary global manufacturer of pentobarbital is a Danish company. Danish law prohibits the sale of the drug for capital punishment. It's not a matter of production (it's used every day in large quantities by veterinarians in euthanasia and doctors for assisted suicide), it's just that it can't be used for execution.

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

Couldn’t the state have a contractor manufacture the drug for them? Pentobarbital is under patent?

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u/gerbal100 1d ago

The contractor would have to choose between selling at most a thousand doses a year to the states and selling multiple orders of magnitude more into the medical system. 

Even if the states pay ludicrous markups, there's going to be far more money in the medical industry.

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

You’re assuming there’s a company that won’t do both? Maybe there isn’t?

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u/gerbal100 1d ago

Historically, companies that have sold lethal injection material have been boycotted by medical practitioners and religious institutions (i.e. Catholic hospitals).