# Why isn't anesthesia used for executions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865 "2022-02-03T18:25:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 4
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/4 "2022-02-03T18:40:35Z")
Already done to death here: > [@Another Lethal injection question](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254): > > A story on NPR pointed out that many people executed by lethal injection may suffer, violating the “cruel and unusual punishment” forbidden by the US Constitution. There is seemingly a problem with the combinations of chemicals used. Why don’t executioners use whatever drug is used to knock patients out for surgery on prisoners, and simply cut their wrists? > [@In America, can a death row prisoner ask to be knocked unconscious before execution](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-america-can-a-death-row-prisoner-ask-to-be-knocked-unconscious-before-execution/805558/12): > > There’s also the issue that general anesthesia won’t work for an execution. The sort of anesthesia usually used in surgery and such doesn’t actually prevent you from feeling pain. It just prevents you from remembering pain. For a surgery, that’s just as good, but someone getting executed isn’t going to remember it afterwards anyway, no matter what you do. > [@General anesthetic prior to death sentence?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-anesthetic-prior-to-death-sentence/687403/3): > > Finding a qualified health professional willing to put someone under anesthesia so they can be killed. Said professionals are expected to use their skills to meet the patient’s legitimate medical needs or desires, not to serve the state to help execute people. That really undermines confidence in your practitioner! > [@Pain During Executions?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-during-executions/530646): > > First…a bit of background: I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy done last week…procedures that are now performed under anesthesia. The anesthesiologist was a very personable guy who went over a long check-list of questions with me before wheeling me into the room where the intrusive tubes were waiting. I had an IV in when I entered the room…and the doctor who was going to perform the procedures was already there. “Turn on your side” were the first words I heard; “Okay, I’m gonna put to sleep” fo… > [@Best and/or least offensive methods of execution](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-or-least-offensive-methods-of-execution/714966/2): > > Anesthesia overdose and/or nitrogen asphyxiation. > [@Execution by lethal injection](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/693894/76): > > So would you find execution by overdose-of-anesthesia acceptable? > [@Death Penalty & Euthanasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-euthanasia/733963/20): > > If this was the case, wouldn’t we hear about pre-surgery anesthesia for inmates constantly going badly? Nope. This claim is untrue whatever the manner of execution, unless we’re talking about “breaking on the wheel” (used only in a few states). > [@Execution by lethal injection](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/17): > > In addition to the quick painless methods listed above the doomed prisoner could be put under with conventional anesthesia and never know it’s coming. If the public wants a spectacle just use a guillotine. Drugs are highly unreliable but there’s no real compromise between the factions that want executions to be quick and painless and those that desire suffering. The condemned could also be given the convenient means to do themselves in but the political problems are even worse. Carbon monoxide c… > [@Why is executing someone painlessly difficult?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-executing-someone-painlessly-difficult/723932/9): > > The short answer is no. Administering gas-only anesthetics is difficult. There are stages to the body reaching that peaceful looking anesthetic plane, and one of them is the “excitement stage.” That’s the one where the patient starts leaping around and gasping. It’s why it’s been deemed, at the very least, unusual. I use this method occasionally with cats when they’re feral or otherwise untouchable and giving them an IM shot of another anesthetic isn’t possible for some reason. It’s not a fun p… > [@Critique this execution method](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/critique-this-execution-method/645470/16): > > Give them a pill or injection that renders them unconscious. Wood chipper. Blunt axes. Lawnmowers. Thrown from helicopter. Torn apart by hungry pigs. It doesn’t matter because the victim is unconscious, and so can’t be said to suffer. Once they’re unconscious, which can be achieved any number of humane ways, and can’t in itself be viewed as inhumane since we sleep every night (and perform dental work and surgery under anesthesia), anything you do to render them dead is humane because they… > [@Can Big Pharma kill the death penalty?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-big-pharma-kill-the-death-penalty/672150/11): > > Antibob says it, almost. There are ten thousand ways to kill people. Anti-DPers have gotten the laws written so that only fresh, specially-compounded, specific substances can be used for executions… and guess what, all the stocks of those are now outdated and can’t be used. How sad. It’s not about the chemicals. It’s about the politics, and groups that use any tiny chiseling point to control a major issue. (I don’t think anyone really, really gives a shit about spotted owls or Mission Blue butt… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865)._