German doctors: No sodium thiopental to US

BERLIN (AP) -- Germany's leading medical association is calling on the nation's pharmaceutical companies to refrain from selling a key drug for lethal injections to the United States.

Frank Ulrich Montgomery, vice president of the German Medical Association, told The Associated Press on Monday the nation's doctors are throwing their support behind a call by the health ministry for German drug companies and distributors to reject U.S. requests for the drug sodium thiopental.

Montegomery says German doctors oppose the death penalty and are urging pharmaceutical companies to "acknowledge their ethical responsibility" and not sell the drug to the U.S. He says the issue "is not about money, but ethical principles."

Last week the sole U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental said it was ceasing production.