Free Republic

The girl who feels no pain was in the kitchen, stirring ramen noodles, when the spoon slipped from her hand and dropped into the pot of boiling water. It was a school night; the TV was on in the living room, and her mother was folding clothes on the couch. Without thinking, Ashlyn Blocker reached her right hand in to retrieve the spoon, then took her hand out of the water and stood looking at it under the oven light. She walked a few steps to the sink and ran cold water over all her faded white scars, then called...

SAN JOSE A judge weighing whether the state's lethal injection method is an unconstitutionally cruel punishment said Friday that the issue hinges on whether the condemned inmate is aware of what's happening. "The critical question, I guess, the court has to look at is what evidence there is of consciousness," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said at the conclusion of the four day hearing. Until a ruling, which Fogel expects to issue in November, executions in the state are on hold. Fogel halted the execution of rapist and murderer Michael Morales in February after his lawyers claimed inmates were suffering...

Every year or so, we have a cultural debate that seems to divide Americans into two camps. And as you have learned from my recent shows, it is not always Republicans fighting Democrats. I know many Republicans who support Michael Schiavo's efforts to end his wife's life, and I know many Democrats who agree with me that starving Terri to death is inhumane and beneath us as a country. The Associate Press cited a study that showed that on a sliding scale from one to nine, experts believed that dying from a lack of food and water was all in...