A Brief History of Barbiturates for Euthanasia
Learn about the history of barbiturates, water soluble medicines used for peaceful euthanasia. Explore the evolution of these drugs and their role in end-of-life care.
Sodium Pentobarbital or Nembutal as it is commonly called is an important and historically significant drug. Although Nembutal is one of over 50 barbiturate derivatives to have been used medically, it is the drug of choice when it comes to dignified, peaceful dying.
All Barbiturates are derivatives of barbituric acid which was first synthesized by Adolph von Bayer in 1864. A ‘condensation’ of malonic acid and urea, barbituric acid is said to have acquired its name after St Barbara’s Day (4 December) - the day on which it is believed to have been discovered.
Other historians have speculated that the discovery may have been named after the chemist’s favorite barmaid, Barbara Either way, the name stuck and barbituric acid has enjoyed an infamous history ever since (Mendelson, 1980). Barbituric acid was found to have no physiological effect and it took another 40 years before chemists, Emil Fischer and Joseph von Mering, discovered that the introduction of two additional side-arms onto the molecule produced a range of compounds with marked physiological activity. It was only then that it became known that the nature of the sedative, hypnotic, or anesthetic properties of the substance were determined by the characteristics of the side-arms attached.
The first of these di-substituted barbiturates was Veronal, Here two ethyl side-arms were added to produce diethyl-barbituric acid a weak hypnotic/ depressant which was marketed by the Bayer company as ‘Veronal’ in 1904, This was followed by phenobarbital (Luminal) in 1913, While barbituric acid is a German discovery, during the First World War when German shipping was blockaded, American chemists made use of the “Trading with the Enemy Act,’ to copy the work of the Germans and manufacture their own modifications of barbituric acid.