# Death by lethal injection and the alcohol swab **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574 "2000-09-01T01:36:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/1 "2000-09-01T01:36:37Z")
This started as a joke on Letterman yesterday (Bush said he wanted to cut down on expenditures by eliminating the alcohol swab procedure before executions), but it got me to think: Is there such a procedure? If so, isn’t this a waste of perfectly good alcohol? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/2 "2000-09-01T01:42:42Z")
It is part of the Standard of Care to sterilize the site where the needle enters with alcohol (or attempt to, the swipe doesn’t do all that much). The physician who is inserting the needle should maintain following the Standard of Care - the condition of the “patient” is not relevant in this case, as silly as it might seem to David Letterman et al. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/3 "2000-09-01T01:43:02Z")
well, not a waste, exactly… they can hook you all up to the machine and put the needle in and have everything ready to go at the push of the button. and then the governer calls with a stay or clemency(obviously this is not set in texas). if that wound gets infected, the state is screwed. so it’s not a waste, any more than having suicide watch on death row is a waste of time. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/4 "2000-09-01T01:44:07Z")
Cecil addressed this [here](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_056.html). ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/5 "2000-09-01T01:44:32Z")
plus, these aren’t the seventies, Omni-Not. we don’t have no goddamn isopropyl shortage, so we can splash that shit around like it were champagne. damn IPEC. ---
**Author:** ![chadg033](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@chadg033](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chadg033)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/6 "2000-09-01T01:47:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by omni-not \* > \*\*This started as a joke on Letterman yesterday (Bush said he wanted to cut down on expenditures by eliminating the alcohol swab procedure before executions), but it got me to think: Is there such a procedure? If so, isn’t this a waste of perfectly good alcohol? \*\* This had been brought up before and the answer was; even though we are putting another human being to death by lethal injection, we are required to be as humane as possible to the criminal in question. And no, I don’t think that they are breaking the bank on a little alcohol and a cotton ball. The price of the injection is worth more than that. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/7 "2000-09-01T01:52:07Z")
Thanks guys. Good catch, Cnote! ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/8 "2000-09-01T02:29:00Z")
FWIW- I just re-read my post. It looks like I was coming off as pricky. Hope no one took it that way. I had remembered him addressing this issue before because I had wondered it myself. Just trying to be helpfull. Sorry if I ruined the beginnings of a good discussion Omni. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-lethal-injection-and-the-alcohol-swab/31574/9 "2000-09-01T03:45:29Z")
Absolutely not. I should have suspected our venerated master already had something to say on the subject: it’s wacky enough. Thanks for the “afterthought”, C. Civility is not a lost art after all.