i was reading this thread:
about heroin overdoses and it reminded me of a topic that i have been thinking about for long time. when someone is condemned by a judge and jury to die by lethal injection, it seems that there is a debate about the pain and suffering involved. and i think that sometimes they even do not do it correctly.
on the TV, film or documentary, one sees a series of several injections and close monitoring and a bank of sophisticated machines. Are they out of their freakin’ minds?
I have seen animals put down by vets with lethal injections of barbituates who die within a second or two, painlessly. a heroin overdose is as well, fatal very rapidly. Why is law enforcement playing around with subtleties and not taking into account any of the genuinely quick painless death scenarios.
this has stumped me for a long time.
FWIW, per this cite, the OK doctor who came up with the three-drug lethal injection cocktail agrees with you. Many of the issues, as the cited article alludes, stem from the AMA prohibiting doctors from providing lethal injections or otherwise substantially participating beyond pronouncing the condemned dead. I forget Qagop’s area of practice and whether s/he has ever had anything to do with medical procedures surrounding capital punishment
Despite being a big Larry Niven fan, I never saw an insurmountable problem with executing the condemned via vivisection. Fully anesthetized, of course…
Still, you’d have to change the AMA’s mind, or provide really supplemental training to the prison paramedics…
Just three things about that:
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Many vets who I know (and was taught by) sedate or lightly anesthesize the animals before euthanasia.
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These animals are usually sick… very sick… So either they are already in death’s door, or getting some sort of constant pain management before the final euthanasia injection.
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I’d say you shouldn’t extrapolate from what animals do or do not feel to what humans feel (and viceversa). I don’t know if it is true that they all die painlessly and without spasms. Conversely, I’ve seen animals tolerate injuries better than I, as a human, would. So even if they’re dying painlessly, doesn’t mean the same combination of drugs would have the same effect in humans.
Heroin produces the most intense sensation of pleasure, like a big warm kiss from God. Death penalty proponents do not want to give this to the condemned as their last moment. If they can’t instill terror in the condemned through the threat of agonizing death, at least the won’t permit them to go out in an opium dream.
Heroin is a schedule I controlled substance - there are many other drugs in schedules II through V that would suffice that are much easier to procure. Even the governor can’t just call a pharmacuetical company and ask them to send him over a big ol’ mess o’ heroin. Previous thread:
Execution by Morphine Overdose?