Why are all the methods of capital punishment so.......weird?

[Inigo_Montoya]

Re hanging: You know that light, fluttery, zero-gravity feeling you get in your belly when you fall unexpectedly? It’d be kinda neat if you didn’t know there was about to be a sickening, crunching, wet “snap” coming from just behind your ears.

bleargh…

[slaphead]

@chowder

So are you saying that even if I’m out like a light I can still feel pain.

I think it depends on the particular drug, and the patients reaction. linky - the people who know how to do this sort of thing reliably tend to be well-trained, well-paid, and not inclined to have anything to do with executions.

@chorpler

In another thread a year or two ago, it was discussed that having a person walk into a big room (or chamber or whatever) filled with nitrogen or helium or some other inert gas would quickly cause lightheadedness, then unconsciousness, and then death, all without the feeling of dyspnea or “air hunger” that you get when suffocating, because that’s caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide rather than a lack of oxygen.

I’d have thought the champion candidate for this would actually be Carbon Monoxide - it’s pretty notorious for killing people without them even noticing what’s happening.

[KarlGrenze]

@pravnik

The prisons frequently have practices in place that allow the prison healh care staff to absolve themselves of participation in executions; the guys who actually do the deed don’t have any nurses or doctors among them. A physician may (or may not) be present, but doesn’t participate in the execution.

The manner of getting the drugs is sort of controversial. There was some litigation that the drugs being used are being obtained illegally under federal law because they’re obtained directly by non-medical personnel for purposes outside their medical use, to put it mildly. The Supreme Court basically shrugged its shoulders and said if federal law is being violated, it was up to the FDA or the AG to do something about it. The case was Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821 (1985).

There was a flap a few years back when a pharmaceutical company wouldn’t supply the New Mexico Secretary of Health with the lethal injection drugs because he wasn’t a physician, so the Govenor ordered the State’s Chief Medical Officer to obtain the drugs. Watchdog groups caught wind of it and pressured the State Board of Medical Examiners to yank his license for violation the State’s medical practices act and ethical violations. The drugs were returned and bought from a different pharmaceutical supply company without a physician’s involvement. Texas does something similar; the drugs are bought at a pharmacy in Austin and driven 100 miles to Huntsville. Here’s a previous thread on the subject, although many of the links are dead:

No prescription needed to execute?

Hey, thank you! Interesting case… I would’ve thought the drugs were bought using a medical license (after all, some of the drugs have other uses besides killing death row immates)…

[Max_Torque]

@chowder

@Marley23

@chowder

Anyone who has had major surgery will have had an injection to knock you out. after a matter of second you’re out cold.

So why not inject the condemned with that drug and while he/she is out then inject the killer drug/s.

Easy?

You just described lethal injection. Except that the killer drugs are, arguably, horribly painful even to someone who is unconscious.

No I did not. I described the administration of a drug to render one unconcious.

Then I asked why a “killer” drug couldn’t be injected after the person was “out”.

AFAIAA no pain would be felt when in a state of unconciousness

I believe what Marley23 was getting at is that giving a large dose of anesthetic is in fact the first step in the lethal injection process. As stated on this site: the first drug is sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, given in a lethal dose. Following that, the condemned gets a lethal dose of two additional drugs, pancuronium bromide (a muscle relaxant that collapses the lungs) and potassium chloride (stops the heart).

The argument against lethal injection these days seems to be that a lethal dose of an anesthetic is somehow not enough to shield the condemned from possible pain and discomfort maybe sorta kinda caused by the other drugs. Personally, I couldn’t care less; they put themselves on that table, they deal with the consequences.

[Guinastasia]

@chowder

So are you saying that even if I’m out like a light I can still feel pain.

If someone kicked me in the nads while unconcious I’d only know about it when I came to…wouldn’t I?

Well, haven’t you ever had a dream, that a swarm of bees were attacking you in the face, and then you’d wake up and your kitten was stabbing you in the face because she wanted you to get up and feed her?

It’s probably like that. You’d be dreaming, and the pain would be part of your dream, maybe?

[Civil_Guy]

No response to the carbon monoxide idea? Pure nitrogen? The other one I’ve heard involved with accidental deaths is nitrous oxide - any comments on that?

(Leaving my opinions about the subject out of GQ.)