How much professional medical involvement does this need? Someone to pronounce death after it’s all over, I would think.
A medical professional to administer the gas.
The manufacturer of that mask will not allow you to use it for that purpose.
If you could just use medical personnel and supplies the whole this wouldn’t be so hard.
For putting a snug mask on and turning on the nitrogen? None, really.
But for administration of lethal meds, you need a pharmaceutical firm willing to have their drugs used to kill. And despite a history of nasty behavior by pharmaceutical firms, few such modern drug companies want that reputation.
Also, you need someone capable of starting an IV and pushing the drug. Many states require that if a person is giving IV drugs, they be certified or licensed. And using a drug to kill someone (especially against their will) would violate most license/certification requirements.
There is a reason these yokels cannot reliably kill somebody.
Everyone who actually learned anything about any of this in school swore an oath to not do harm.
‘Primum non nocere’ was one of the first things I learned in med school. Along with the fact that we’re there to serve the patient’s legitimate medical needs, and only with their consent.
I suppose one could start a ‘professional executioner’ exemption but I think killing people as a routine profession would really damage the mind and soul of said individual.
No medical professional should touch this process, obviously. My question is, does any medical practitioner have to? AFAIK, there’s no medically invasive procedure involved; merely strap a mask over the victim’s face and turn on the gas.
Yeah, because the methods they’re using are complicated. The method proposed is what we expect every Boeing passenger to be able to manage after the door flies off the plane.
“Fit the mask over your face and breathe normally”
Well, I hope the Alabama process doesn’t require the condemned to apply their own mask. That would be remarkably cruel, even considering the context.
I’m not sure Alabama still has a gas chamber. Only six states still allow executions by gas chamber, Arizona, California, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, and Wyoming. I expect most of the others have repurposed the chamber, but who knows?
I just don’t know what to think about this as a method of execution. On the one hand, Sarco pods are supposed to be a gentle form of assisted suicide. On the other hand, according to this CBS News article, veterinarians refuse to use nitrogen to euthanize animals because of its “distressing effects” and danger to humans in the vicinity. And in a series of bulletins, the US Chemical Safety Board, has warned that
when enough nitrogen is introduced to deplete oxygen in the air to less than 10%, effects on the human body can be lethal, potentially causing “inability to move, loss of consciousness, convulsions” and death.
Death is, of course, the point. Convulsions are not.
The same article says
Research has shown that when oxygen levels in the air are down to around 12.5%, humans can experience “impaired respiration that may cause permanent heart damage” along with nausea, vomiting and “very poor judgment and coordination.”
Maybe the question we should ask is this: If the troubling effects of nitrogen occur after loss of consciousness, is it still cruel and unusual?
If you do you’ll be sued 7 ways from Sunday.
- you used the mask improperly.
- you used the gas in a dangerous fashion.
- you administered a sedative without a license.
In short you’ll have trouble making much money, no insurance will want to come near you.
Doesn’t seem like a fun career.
Do you think this attracts quiet levelheaded professionals or does this more sound like a job for conmen? (Who simply don’t care if they fuck it up)
I might be wrong, but I think the person being executed might be supposed to be able to have a religious practitioner of their choice in the room with them.
– ah. I think I’m right:
[A Supreme Court ruling] last March requires states to allow spiritual advisers to join condemned inmates in their final moments, where they can speak together and even touch.
Again:
Who is going to provide the mask?
Do you mean, “who already provided the mask”? Because the impression I get is that everything is ready already.
Amazon? Looks like oxygen masks cost about $3 a piece.
Is this really experimenting?
I thought the effects of nitrogen are pretty well known.
I am not arguing for the death penalty. I just wonder if this is really an experiment?
The apparatus is unproven. Most historical examples of nitrogen asphyxia are full-immersion, but this process isn’t. (It would be if they used a gas chamber.)
And, as a witnessed method of taking a human life, it’s unknown how distressing the effects of asphyxiation will appear to observers. (E.g., convulsions, sounds of distress, etc.)
The trouble with being the state is that you have to do things properly.
You need a producer of masks to sign off on this use case. Using any gas that isn’t cleared for medical use is quickly going into cruel and unusual territory and using medical supplies is a non starter.
The lucky thing about being the state is that you decide what is “doing things properly”.
Supply chains are a practical weakness to most execution methods, but states have managed to overcome those over and over.
You’d likely need a better one than that if you want to be sure you have an airtight seal. You’d also have to make sure it’s properly fitted. As with all things in this area, you can certainly leave it to someone with no medical training or experience and odds are it’ll work out fine, but it greatly increases the chance they’ll fuck it up.
As a medical professional, I object to making execution look like a medical procedure. Because it isn’t one. I think they should stick to the firing squad or the guillotine, not because it’s bloodier or more shocking, but because it makes the line between execution and medical practice that much sharper.