WHAT'S NEXT

Urge Drug-Maker Hospira To Stop Supplying Lethal Injections
  1. Signatures
    369 out of 1,000
    Petitioning
    1. Hospira Public Affairs Dept. (+ 1 other)
      Petitioning
      close
      • Hospira Public Affairs Dept.
      • CEO, Hospira (Christopher Begley)
  2. Created By
    Matt Kelley
    New Haven, CT
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
How We Won

Jan 21, 2011

For years, pharmaceutical company Hospira was the sole FDA-approved supplier of sodium thiopental, a drug used by states to carry out executions – despite the company's stated opposition to capital punishment. But after pressure from anti-death penalty activists, the company announced on January 21 that it will permanently halt production of the lethal drug, a move that will delay state-sanctioned killings across the country.

Executions are on hold in several states as supplies of key drug used in lethal injections have dried up, and the maker of the drug has a chance to stand up against what it sees as a twisted use of its product.

Hospira, the manufacturer of lethal-injection drug sodium thiopental, has said it does not support the drug's use in lethal injections.

Send a letter to Hospira CEO Christopher Begley urging him to use this opportunity to announce that his company will no longer supply the drug to state corrections departments for use in lethal injections.

Recent Signatures

The Ethical Obligation to Stop Selling Sodium Thiopental

Dear Mr. Begley,

I have read about your company’s Pentothal shortage and its impact on delaying executions in several states across the U.S. I’m writing to urge you to permanently stop supplying the drug to state corrections departments for the use in ending human lives.

Your company wrote in a letter in March that you “do not support the use of any of our products in capital punishment procedures.” If this is true, please take steps to end your practice of supplying this drug for use in lethal injections. You have an opportunity to make this shortage of the drug permanent, and I urge you to seize it.

The American Medical Association and other medical organizations have long said that the ethical obligation of medical professionals strictly prohibit a role in ending human lives. Your company should follow these ethical guidelines and refuse to participate in what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun once called “the machinery of death.”

Hospira’s driving philosophy calls for “active citizenship” in your communities and describes the company as one that acts on its values. You stated your values in the March 31 letter: you aim to “save or improve lives.” Sodium thiopental is being used to end lives, and you have the power to stop it.

Please make the pledge to stop providing this drug for use in lethal injections.

Thank you,

[Your name]

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