The Doctors Who Invented a New Way to Help People Die

Excellent overview of how the drug formulas under Death with Dignity Laws came about. by Jennie Dear, The Atlantic, Jan 22, 2019

This Dec., 2019 article notes that the second 4-drug cocktail developed for aid-in-dying is not as quick acting as secobarbital or pentobarbital, the preferred drugs. Pentobarbital became unavailable after drugmakers blocked its use in U.S. death-penalty executions. Secobarbital is also unavailable. They are now working on a 3-drug cocktail. The article states that the 4-drug cocktail sometimes did not always work to achieve a quick death, extending once to 31 hours. It also notes that patients can have conditions that can slow or alter normal organ function, causing deviation from expected results. Read: “Northwest Doctors Rethink Aid-In-Dying Drugs To Avoid Prolonged Deaths.”