Posted on 04/14/2005 10:09:57 AM PDT by Sax
Health - HealthDay
U.S. Executions by Lethal Injection May Not Be Humane
1 hour, 3 minutes ago Health - HealthDay
THURSDAY, April 14 (HealthDay News) -- Prisoner executions by lethal injection in the United States may not be painless or humane, and may not even meet veterinary standards for putting down animals.
So claims a research letter in this week's issue of The Lancet.
The authors concluded that prisoners executed by lethal injection may have experienced awareness and unnecessary suffering as they died because they weren't properly sedated. Anesthesia during lethal injection is essential to minimize the prisoner's suffering.
Lethal injection involves sequential administration of sodium thiopental for anesthesia, pancuronium bromide to induce paralysis, and then potassium chloride to stop the heart and cause death. If anesthesia wasn't used, the condemned prisoner would suffocate and experience excruciating pain without being able to move.
Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine analyzed execution protocol information from Texas and Virginia, which account for about 45 percent of executions in the United States. They found that executioners had no training in anesthesia; the drugs were administered remotely with no monitoring of the anesthesia; and there was no data collection, no documentation of anesthesia, and no post-procedure peer review.
The authors also analyzed toxicology reports from 49 prisoners executed in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In 43 of the 49 cases, the authors found blood concentrations of the anesthetic sodium thiopental were lower than that required for surgery. In 21 cases, the concentrations were low enough to be consistent with awareness on the part of the prisoner during execution.
"Our data suggest that anesthesia methods in lethal injection in the U.S. are flawed. Failures in protocol design, implementation, monitoring and review might have led to unnecessary suffering of at least some of those executed," lead researcher Leonidas Koniaris said in a prepared statement. His team believes current death row practices might not even meet standard veterinary guidelines for putting down animals.
"Because participation of doctors in protocol design or execution is ethically prohibited, adequate anesthesia cannot be certain. Therefore to prevent unnecessary cruelty and suffering, cessation and public review of lethal injection is warranted," Koniaris said.
More information
The Death Penalty Informaton Center has more on the various methods of prisoner execution in the United States.
I propose that we replace lethal injection with starvation and dehydration, since that has been declared to be humane.
More anti-Americanism in the Lancet. Surprise, surprise, surprise...
What? Are they getting complaints?
I agree. Death rowers should be walled up alive in cement where they starve and dehydrate to death in a state of utter euphoria. Then the concrete blocks can be used as construction materials.
Plastic Chippers - They've got 'em at fire sale prices somewhere east of here...
That's an excellent idea! We certainly don't want murderers and rapists to suffer. Just enjoy the serenity of dehydration and starvation. I'm sure liberals will love the idea.
Fine, let's get rid of the death penalty and replace it with a couple hard labor gulags in central Alaska.
Firing squad is too much a man's way to go for them.
I love the "feel-good" stories. Puts a smile on my face.....
They also need to be sure to swab the injection site with alcohol to avoid the danger of infection.
Not humane, it has been declared euphoric.
a long rope and a tall tree or a horse or even a chair will do the job and save the cost of 'peer review'
I read recently in the MSM that starvation is the most humane. It's not only painless, it also gives one a sense of euphoria. Morphine can be administered to relieve convulsions.
A few years ago some guy was convicted of child rape/murder in Iran and was beat, but in a large burlap sack (while still awake), and thrown off a mountainside. What the people did to get on death row in this country was inhumane. Lets shift the sympathy a little towards the victim and not the murdering scumbags.
I feel the same way.
Yeah, it is an execution, not a root canal. The analyze it as if it's a routine medical proceedure just because needles and chemicals are used. If the condemned has done something heinous enough to deserve death, reasonable precautions should be enough. I'm not losing any sleep over this.
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