>From Ranchoth
>Where, exactly, would self inflicted “gunshots to the head”
>be used for executions?
I guess the “self-inflicted” part is optional.
I just put that one in since the firing squad is a heart shot.
>From Reader99
>http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/bldyk10.htm
>The guillotine…
>The current medical consensus is that life does survive,
>for a period of roughly thirteen seconds…
>Conversely, an individual could remain self-aware -
>able to see through their eyes and understand what has
>happened - for much of the thirteen-second period.
Yeow!
I’m going with the self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
MSKE has beaten me to what has to be the most important point.
What about the psychological “torture” of the lead up to the execution? I imagine that it would be pretty depressing to go through the last appeal etc and have an execution date set. Then the preparations - last meal, visit from the priest, last meeting with family, walk to the chamber/gallows, being strapped in or strung up and then the wait until the switch is thrown or the lever is pulled.
Any pain that an execution causes has to be fairly insignificant in relation to that.
As Kalimero explained, cyanide stops cells from using oxygen in cellular respiration – it prevents the synthesis of ATP, the ‘energy currency of the cell’, which requires oxygen in the final stages. This doesn’t cause simple suffocation – it causes rapid loss of consciousness because neurons which have been exposed to cyanide are not capable of transmitting signals. The problem with cyanide in judicial executions is that the condemned individual tends to struggle against inhaling the poisonous gas. This is probably a natural response, but tends to prolong their suffering.
Execution by shooting, whether by the military-derived method of several bullets aimed at the heart or the single bullet aimed at the back of the head used in Communist and other totalitarian states, is probably not instantaneous unless done correctly. I would imagine that consciousness ceases almost immediately after several rifle bullets penetrate the heart, but the base-of-the-skull method is only quick if the spinal cord is severed, and accounts of such executions describe some victims surviving for some time.
Lethal injection is probably painless. I don’t think it’s been described yet, so this is how it generally works:
The condemned is given an IV injection of sodium thiopental (Pentothal), which is a highly effective tranquilizer at lower doses but is given in a sufficiently high dose to cause unconsciousness. Most likely, the condemned is unaware of what is happening after this point.
After the first injection, the IV line is flushed with saline.
Pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant, is given in a sufficiently high dose to stop breathing. (Rather more morbidly, this may also serve to prevent the condemned from twitching or appearing to struggle.)
The IV lines are flushed with saline again.
A fatal dose of potassium chloride is given. This interrupts the ‘pacemaker’ responsible for maintaining heartbeat and causes cardiac arrest as well as interfering with the nervous system.
The first two drugs – perhaps even the first if the dose is sufficiently high – may be enough to kill the condemned. Also, an oral dose of a benzodiazepine tranquilizer may optionally be given several hours before the execution to calm the condemned. This is the modern equivalent of the old-fashioned shot of whiskey.
Ranchoth, the “captive bolt guns” used in slaughterhouses do not kill cattle. They cause unconsciousness (“stunning”) by a blow to the head, which used to be done with a sledgehammer. The cattle are actually killed by cutting their jugular veins with a knife. Vegetarian literature commonly says that some cattle are still conscious when this happens. Other animals are stunned in other methods – chickens, for example, are stunned with an electric shock and killed by decapitation.
