Oath, what oath?

At this time, I vow to devote my professional life to the service of all humankind through the profession of pharmacy.
I will consider the welfare of humanity and relief of human suffering my primary concerns.
I will apply my knowledge, experience, and skills to the best of my ability to assure optimal drug therapy outcomes for the patients I serve.
I will keep abreast of developments and maintain professional competency in my profession of pharmacy. I will maintain the highest principles of moral, ethical and legal conduct.
I will embrace and advocate change in the profession of pharmacy that improves patient care.
I take these vows voluntarily with the full realization of the responsibility with which I am entrusted by the public.
-- Pharmacist's Oath

Thanks to a public information request from the Associated Press - and a federal lawsuit filed by inmates on death row - we now know where the drug used to murder Arturo Diaz came from.

The source of the drugs was The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy which is located at 3200 Research Forest Drive in The Woodlands, Texas, a suburb north of Houston. The pharmacy is owned by Dr. Jasper Lovoi III whose family owns another pharmacy in Beaumont. Dr. Lovloi III also runs Bimini Cosmetics which, according to its website, produces "the most amazing skin care products available today."

In his haste to make some money by filling an order for the "Huntsville Unit Hospital" - even though the hospital unit has been closed since 1983, Dr. Lovloi III mashed up eight 2.5 gram vials of pentobarbital - enough for the State of Texas to kill four people.

In so doing, Dr. Lovloi III tore up the oath he took upon becoming a pharmacist and tossed it into the trash. He didn't produce the drug to assist a patient battling pain. He didn't produce the drug to optimize any patient's drug therapy. No. He made the drugs in order to assist the state in ending the life of an individual.

The death penalty only continues because the state has been able to convince folks to compromise the oaths they took when they because doctors and nurses and to assist in the murder of people. It has also survived because drug companies were more concerned with the bottom line than in their ethical obligations. Now it's only lifeline are pharmacists who couldn't care less about the words they mouthed when they finished school.

Dr. Lovloi III is one of those people for whom a pocketful of cash is more important than ethics.