the state of Missouri told a federal judge that it cannot meet his demand...

the state of Missouri told a federal judge that it cannot meet his demand to hire a board-certified anesthesiologist to assist in executing prisoners by lethal injection because it cannot find one willing to do so. It seems the doctors take seriously the line in the Hippocratic Oath, which commands: "First, do no harm."
U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. last month halted executions in Missouri until the state made sweeping changes in how it executes death-row inmates to ensure the there was no risk of unnecessary pain and suffering.
Today, on the eve of the Saturday deadline set by U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr., Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon told the judge the state could not meet the weekend deadline for such changes. Nixon said letters were sent to 298 anesthesiologists in Missouri and southern Illinois requesting their services at executions, but none volunteered.
The documents, filed by State Attorney General Jay Nixon, said the state would substitute other medical personnel instead. That would address the court's concerns that prisoners be "sufficiently unconscious" from the first drug, an anesthetic, before two subsequent drugs to paralyze the prisoner and stop his heart, are administered, the state said.