# Best and/or least offensive methods of execution **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966 "2015-03-14T05:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/21 "2015-03-14T16:21:11Z")
I’ve always heard good things about the guillotine! That would be my SECOND choice. For first, I’ll kick back with **septimus** and enjoy a massive overdose of opiates. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/22 "2015-03-14T16:33:10Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > Guillotine. And I’m not kidding. If we’re going to kill people, let’s be honest about it - no doctors in white coats with sterile needles making everyone feel like what they’re watching is civilized. As long as you keep the blade sharp, the guillotine is one of the fastest, most painless ways to die - there’s no chance of malfunction like with injections, the chair, or even a firing squad. It’s also quite cost efficient. If it makes you uncomfortable, well, maybe you shouldn’t support capital punishment. I don’t believe it is the most painless if you account for the mental state of the person to be executed, during the time preceding the event. I believe most people, if forced to make a choice, would rather know that they will just drift off into unconsciousness than know they will have their head sliced off. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/23 "2015-03-14T16:49:26Z")
One bullet, one executioner was the method in the old Soviet Union (and continues today in Belarus, which is essentially the closest thing to the Soviet Union on offer today). ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/24 "2015-03-14T16:55:10Z")
I’ve definitely become a guillotine convert in the past year or so. Is there like some particular Anglo-American taboo against drawing blood and/or decapitation because otherwise its a fairly clean way to go? ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/25 "2015-03-14T16:57:57Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I’d be generous and let the convict choose from among a few options. > Morphine overdose is a simple painless way to kill. I forget the reason against it… Snip. It could be the drug manufacturers won’t allow it to be used for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/26 "2015-03-14T17:04:26Z")
Put me in the N2 camp also well not literally ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/27 "2015-03-14T17:45:02Z")
The title mentions the least offensive, but the content of the OP concerns the least painful-two very different things… As an opponent of capital punishment, if I were forced to choose a method I would want one that would make it hard on those that would choose to have a human die in cold blood “for the good of the state”, and yet not be terribly painful to those that are executed. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/28 "2015-03-14T18:29:53Z")
Nitrogen asphyxiation. I don’t understand why it’s not used. ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/29 "2015-03-14T18:36:53Z")
The crap that killed Michael Jackson… I was given some once and it was most pleasant… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/30 "2015-03-14T20:17:17Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > Guillotine. . . . there’s no chance of malfunction . . . It’s a work of human engineering: certainly there’s a chance of malfunction. Some day, the blade is going to get stuck in the slide, and we’ll have chopped deeply into someone’s neck without severing it. What’s the chance of malfunction with a really strong guy and an axe? But Mary Stuart learned otherwise… ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/31 "2015-03-15T01:24:01Z")
I think all this talk about the physical pain or lack of pain of an execution method fails to take into account the mental/psychological distress of someone on death row for years, who knows that death is coming, and that there’s no escaping it. So ideally, a suffering-free death penalty would involve some drug that would make the inmate blissfully unaware of his impending execution. Maybe he’d be convinced all along that he was in life imprisonment, not death row. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/32 "2015-03-15T02:12:07Z")
IIRC, there was a death penalty case some years ago (mid-1980’s?) that reached the Supreme Court. A condemned convict did not object to the manner of death that was proposed (I forget what or where it was), but asked to be anesthetized just before and during the act. The state objected to that because … reasons? The Supreme Court ruled for the state and against the convict, arguing that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to anesthetize the convict before killing him. 😕 They said that to be constitutional, the convict, while being executed, _had to be aware he was being executed_ because it was cruel and unusual otherwise. This was either the Burger or the Rehnquist court. This was also before anybody thought of lethal injections. It’s astonishing that doctors can anesthetize patients for surgery in hospitals every day, but executioners doing lethal injections can’t get it right. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/33 "2015-03-15T02:16:30Z")
Frankly, again, why not anesthesia overdose? If you are going to anesthetize someone before beheading/shooting/lethal injection, then you really might as well inject 10x as much anesthetic with a bigger syringe. Extremely simple, direct and straightforward, no? And if drug companies object, how could they know about it, or stop it? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/34 "2015-03-15T02:33:09Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > If “just knocking someone out with drugs” was so easy, lethal injection wouldn’t be in the news so much. Knock someone out with drugs, then put them in the electric chair. Or knock them out and then shoot them in the head. Or knock them out and then asphyxiate them with inert gas. It seems very humane. the person feels no pain and the execution is quick. The last thing they victim feels is going to sleep. the problem is the 2 and 3 drug cocktails that we really don’t understand, can’t get the ingredients for, etc. There is speculation that people could spent 20 minutes in agony with lethal injection. Electrocution, if done right, should kill you in under a second. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/35 "2015-03-15T03:27:04Z")
There is no inoffensive way for the state to kill someone. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/36 "2015-03-15T03:33:33Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > What’s the chance of malfunction with a really strong guy and an axe? But Mary Stuart learned otherwise… The Duke of Monmouth would have something to say here, I believe… “five chopps.” ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/37 "2015-03-15T03:39:21Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > And if drug companies object, how could they know about it, or stop it? It’s the other way around: unless the US gives assurances that drugs are not going to be used for executions, EU regulations bar European drug companies from exporting those drugs to the US. That ban in export to the US is already having an effect, as some of the drugs formerly used in the lethal injection process are not available, and some states are having to go to compounding drug companies to make substitutes. Link: European Commission Announces Tight Controls on Lethal Injection Drugs [http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/european-commission-announces-tight-controls-exportation-lethal-injection-drugs](http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/european-commission-announces-tight-controls-exportation-lethal-injection-drugs) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/38 "2015-03-15T05:37:41Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The Duke of Monmouth would have something to say here, I believe… “five chopps.” Son of a gun! I didn’t know that one, and had to look it up. Yee-bloody-ouch! ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/39 "2015-03-15T05:48:24Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > It’s the other way around: unless the US gives assurances that drugs are not going to be used for executions, EU regulations bar European drug companies from exporting those drugs to the US. That ban in export to the US is already having an effect, as some of the drugs formerly used in the lethal injection process are not available, and some states are having to go to compounding drug companies to make substitutes. Europe has such a dominant pharmaceutical monopoly? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/40 "2015-03-15T05:49:10Z")
I’m very Old School. Nothing beats the guillotine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966.md?page=3)