Hell, if I had to be executed, the Russian method’s what I’d opt for. As far as I’m concerned, just make it as quick as possible and the issue of pain becomes moot.
Thanks for all the good comments…and for the dark humor also…folks.
Interesting topic.
I would have to agree, although an overdose of some anasthetic after a double dose of rohypnol would work, rohypnol makes you oblivious, and the anasthetic to depress breathing until death [for the right various ones] or heavy morphine overdose [which also will stop breathing] and I do know that the lethal dose levels of morphine are quite well known. As was pointed out upstream, you don’t have to have medical training to do an IV push of 10 times the LD50 dose of morphine and have the expectations of death in a reasonable time, and I do believe that an EEG could be done by a properly trained medical tech, as the EEG is only to demonstrate proof of life, you can’t kill someone with an EEG [well maybe in a Voerhoven movie …]
I’d pick Mme Guillotine just to satisfy my own morbid curiosity regarding if & how long the head remains conscious & aware.
I’d pick firing squad, waive the blindfold, enjoy the last cigarette, and stare the bastards in the eye while they aim at me.
Here’s an ethical can of worms to consider: Many modern anesthetic methods don’t actually stop you from feeling pain; they just stop you from forming memories of the pain. So when you wake up, you think you didn’t feel a thing (because you don’t remember feeling anything), but while it was going on, you did. And this is considered acceptable.
But the rub comes when you apply this to execution methods: In an execution, you can be sure that the subject won’t remember any of the procedure afterwards, too. So it wouldn’t actually change anything to administer amnesia drugs. What, then, does this imply?
From my personal perspective, that implies exactly what I said above: just make death as quick as possible and the pain issue will go moot.
(Presumably, part of what amnesia-type anesthetics do is also keep you, during the procedure, from having memories of the pain from previous parts of the procedure; i.e., you never form such thoughts as “Goddamn, this torture has been going on for so long”, just thoughts such as “Goddamn, this hurts right now”?)
I too am going to go with vengence. Even though the “original intent” whores on the Supreme Court have gutted the “no cruel and unusual punishment” clause, it probably isn’t a wise idea for the government to encourage sexual torture fantasies.
Really? I’m certainly not saying your wrong, but could I get a cite?
Breaker Morant, 1980
Actually it might make sense-Singapore, quite frankly, is doing something good here. That American brat that got caned back in the '90s deserved it. And no it isn’t cruel and unusual punishment.
Which is why I prefer firing squad or hanging instead of lethal injection.
A .38 hollowpoint fired into the back of the skull, right where the spinal cord comes in. No pain whatsoever; it’ll cancel their ticket before the nervous system knows that anything has happened.
There is something so…cavalier about your last sentence, unless you are saying what you’d prefer, hypothetically, for your self as some others have said. If you don’t mean it that way, then this sentence disturbs me for some reason.
And how do you know caning isn’t cruel. It’s certainly unusual to smack grown people on the behind with thumb-diameter piece of rattan. Doesn’t it split the skin and leave permanent scars? I’d call that pretty cruel.
Determining what is cruel depends partly on why you’re getting that punishment. If you get forty years in prison for going past the speed limit I’d consider that cruel but not if you got the same sentence for attempted murder.
And if we’re going to do that, I don’t see why the delivery of the bullet couldn’t be set up in some kind of mechanical framework rather than having an individual executioner holding a gun to the convict’s neck. Two people strap the convict into the framework, a third adjusts the splatter containment wrap, a fourth pushes the button that triggers the bullet, and the execution has been carried out as a group effort.
Mind you, I personally am in favor of abolishing the death penalty under all circumstances, but if we’re going to have the death penalty, then there’s no reason not to implement it in the quickest and least screw-up-able way possible.
Probably would. Between the impact of the slug and the hydrostatic shock wave, brain death would most likely be immediate. You wouldn’t have time to feel anything.
Why use a gun? Why not use one of those pneumatic bolt things they use on cattle?
If it serves the same function - quick and painless - then I don’t see the difference.
Even though I am anti-execution. My big worry is, what if you got the wrong guy. Or what if he really was nuts, and not responsible. There’s no way to un-do it.
Alas, there’s no way to undo years of jail-time either, although you can at least stop the sentence midway (i.e., effectively reduce but not entirely reverse it, with the longer the wait, the less reduction possible) if you discover the need to do so, possibly along with further recompensation. But undo? Nope.