LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cocktail: Drugs
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Hausknecht and company make much of the increased privacy flowing from the "abortion cocktail." This is, to be charitable, a delusion fostered largely by dishonest reporting and slovenly procedure. In their book RU-486: Misconceptions, Myths, and Morals, the feminists Janice G. Raymond, Renate Klein, and Lynette J. Dumble point out that all medical abortions, far from being purely private affairs between women and their physicians, are even more public than the conventional surgical (suction) abortions. A woman seeking a medical abortion of any sort must submit to a general physical examination (to assure she is an apt candidate for the drugs in question) as well as to a pelvic examination. She must have a blood test to confirm the pregnancy and an ultrasound examination to assure that the pregnancy is within the established limits of gestation for such an abortion. A legally mandated waiting period may follow, after which the woman must return to be given an injection by a physician or nurse. She must return a third time for the ingestion of the second drug (misoprostol, used both in RU-486 and the new "abortion cocktail"), whereupon she is subjected to a second pelvic examination as well as to an elaborate mix of blood tests.
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People infected with the virus that causes AIDS will soon be able to take a once-a-day pill that combines three drugs in a "cocktail" therapy that can be swallowed in a single dose. The pill, called Atripla, includes three FDA-approved medicines that already form one of the most widely prescribed treatments for HIV and AIDS. The FDA approved the combination version in July. Atripla combines Viread (tenofovir), Emtriva (emtricitabine), and Sustiva (efavirenz). Viread and Emtriva, both made by Gilead, are now sold in combination under the brand name Truvada. Sustiva is made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (Associated Press/ABC News, 7/12/06)
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Methotrexate, the first drug used in the "abortion cocktail," is an unusually potent and dangerous drug. The Physician's Desk Reference (PDR), an encyclopedic compendium of prescription drugs marketed in the U.S., devotes six pages to a description of the powers and hazards of this drug, its uses and abuses. (The average entry for drugs runs about one-half page.) The entry opens with a black-bordered box reading, in part: "Methotrexate should be used only by physicians whose knowledge and experience includes the use of antimetabolite therapy. . . . Because of the possibility of serious toxic reactions the patient should be informed by the physician of the risks involved, and should be under a physician's constant supervision."
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A number of courts around the country have begun to consider challenges to the constitutionality of executing condemned prisoners by the three-drug "cocktail" approach to lethal injection. This is the approach used by every one of the overwhelming majority of death-penalty states that have publicized their lethal injection protocols. The three drugs, in theory, anesthetize the target, paralyze his muscles, and stop his heart from beating, in that order.
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The standard drug treatment is a cocktail made from two potent antiviral drugs, interferon and ribavirin. A study reported in May indicates that about half of the patients who try the cocktail could be "cured" of the disease - meaning the virus is eradicated.
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