Critics Say Execution Drug May Hide Suffering

[kskiska]

NASHVILLE, Oct. 1 — At the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution here, through a set of double doors next to several vending machines, a gurney stands ready to deliver prisoners to their executions by lethal injection.

Just about every aspect of the death penalty provokes acrimonious debate, but this method of killing, by common consensus, is as humane as medicine can make it. People who have witnessed injection executions say the deaths appeared hauntingly serene, more evocative of the operating room than of the gallows.

But a growing number of legal and medical experts are warning that the apparent tranquillity of a lethal injection may be deceptive. They say the standard method of executing people in most states could lead to paralysis that masks intense distress, leaving a wide-awake inmate unable to speak or cry out as he slowly suffocates.

In 2001, it became a crime for veterinarians in Tennessee to use one of the chemicals in that standard method to euthanize pets.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/07/national/07LETH.html?hp

[WindRavenX]

1. Wow, that's a shocker

We're killing people with chemicals that we won't even use to put our pets to sleep?
Wow...that's harsh-and sickening. This needs more coverage, IMO

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. actually the subject is feeling and perceiving the excruciatingly painful

"A judge here recently found that pancuronium bromide, marketed under the trade name Pavulon, has "no legitimate purpose."

"The subject gives all the appearances of a serene expiration when actually the subject is feeling and perceiving the excruciatingly painful ordeal of death by lethal injection," the judge, Ellen Hobbs Lyle, wrote, describing the worst-case scenario. "The Pavulon gives a false impression of serenity to viewers, making punishment by death more palatable and acceptable to society.""

[jamesinca]

14. Pancuronium is a paralyzing agent

It is used during surgery to keep the patient still. It is a long acting nondepolorizing agent. There is only one depolorizing agent out there and that is succinylcholine. It is a quick acting, short lived paralyzing agent. You can have all the pain in the world, you can even shed tears, but you don't move or cry out. You can't. It is like an Alfred Hitchcock type thing. It does have a good purpose, it just depends on what it is used for.

[Democrats unite]

3. I say bring back the electric chair.

& save the drugs for rush.

[Drifter]

5. Yeah ...

Give'm something to to make them twitch. Perhaps something that keeps them going long after they are clinically dead.

</sarcasm>

Cheers
Drifter

On edit: you do know this is sarcasm ... RIGHT!?!

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. I say get rid of the Death Penalty - Period

We don't have the Death Penalty in Canada

We have silly stuff like Universal Free Health Care

Silly Canuks

___ :dunce: ___

[Kitsune]

8. Right on!

[hlthe2b]

9. and lots of guns that are NOT used to kill PEOPLE!

You canuks can definitely teach your southern neighbors a thing or two. Unfortunately, most of us won't listen...

[Guaranteed]

4. Does the chemical ever wear off?

If so someone should know what the cognitive effects are.
If it's a permanent thing, we'll never know. Same thing as the "is there life after death" issue.

[hlthe2b]

7. UNBELIEVABLE....

I'll just say I am professionally in a position to have used and fully understand the pharmacology/effect of these drugs. I can not BELIEVE that this is the cocktail used....

I have never known a veterinarian to use pancuronium bromide with the normal barbituate injection used for euthanasia... They are trained as are physicians as to the impact of these drugs and it would simply not make sense.

Incredible.....Nonetheless, ignorance does persist for quite awhile. In medicine, ketamine was used for c-sections for years, though it offers NO analgesia. The women were imobilized by the drug but felt EVERYTHING....

Maybe we need the decision makers to have experienced the impact of these drugs (sublethal levels of course)!

[jonoboy]

11. sick sick

the death penalty should be abolished..but what hope is there with that dimwit in the White House who relished in it when he was Governor..

hey we don't have the death penalty in Australia either and also have silly things like:

SOCIALISED UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE which any Government that trys to tinkers with pays the ultimate price with as well, at the ballot box.

even conservative voters love it..no wonder Bush and their Drug company pals fight to keep your health private.

[karlschneider]

10. I of course don't know whether death by whatever means is "painful" but

(putting on asbestos underwear), it seems ...er, "painfully clear" that the quickest is the best (least worst, I suppose)

If I had to choose, it would be a grenade in my mouth, or close proximity. The quicker the better.
:eyes:

[zelda7743]

12. I'd probably pick the guillotine

Cuts your head right off.

[ex_jew]

15. I always liked the idea of burying the prisoner alive and letting

HIM decide when to pull the pin on a hand grenade. Not that I'm in favor of the death penalty, mind you, but I'd like to control the timing of my passing if it was me. Is this sick ?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Let's be brutally honest. The primary purpose of death-by-injection...

...is to keep the WITNESSES from feeling uncomfortable. From the reports from witnesses, including guards, wardens, reporters, and anyone else invited to an execution, most forms of execution cause the executed person to show some outward signs of extreme discomfort. Lethal injection does not because the patient is paralyzed...and hopefully unconscious.

<http://teacher.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/c/about/methods/lethalinjection.htm>

The electric chair has been known to operate incorrectly causing bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Sounds have been heard coming from the gagged prisoner, and small fires have broken out on the prisoner's body. Witnesses tended to use terms like "barbaric" and "ghastly" when such things took place.

<http://teacher.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/c/about/methods/electrocution.htm>

The gas chamber was far too graphic in the way that it operated. The prisoner would take quite a while to die while initially thrashing about and trying not exhale what little good air remained in his or her lungs. Witnesses to this kind of execution were not all that pleased with having to watch the prisoner for quite a bit longer than they would have you believe.

<http://teacher.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/c/about/methods/gaschamber.htm>

Hanging worked pretty well as long as the hangman prepared the knot correctly. If improperly placed, the prisoner would slowly strangle for the next several minutes while making some pretty horrible noises.

<http://teacher.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/c/about/methods/hanging.htm>

The firing squad is still used in a couple of states even today. It also has pros and cons.

<http://teacher.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/c/about/methods/firingsquad.htm>

The guillotine appeared to work rather quickly, but scientists could never explain why the eyes and mouth continued to work for up to 13 or more seconds after the beheading took place.

<http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/bldyk10.htm>

[Gingersnap]

16. please someone tell me they don't use this in CA

on pets anymore. I put a cat to sleep a year ago and he seemed peaceful, I'd hate to think he suffered.

By the way, I hate to think the prisoners suffer either, but I don't think we should be killing them, even if they don't feel it.