Can You Kill Someone Humanely ?

Is there really any efficent way to execute someone
and it remain humane? How can you ever be sure
since the victim is not available for an interview.
Up to now everything we know about humane
killing is based on theory and theory is nothing more
than an educated guess. So the way I see it there will
always be unanswered questions about the right or wrong
way to properly execute someone within the perameters
of the constitution. Ok, your turn to speak up on the matter.



Two of the three drugs used in lethal injection are not administered in a way that reliably produces painless death for inmates, leaving at least some to die of suffocation and be conscious enough to realize it, according to a new analysis of executions in California and North Carolina. Reviewing the cases of 41 inmates dating back to 1984, the researchers found that the dose of anesthesia given at the start of an execution varied widely and was often insufficient to keep an inmate unconscious.

They also concluded that the chemical intended to induce cardiac arrest did not always stop prisoners' hearts."The argument that's always been given about lethal injection is that in theory, a well-trained person could give it humanely," said Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno, who has studied lethal injection for 15 years and is a death penalty opponent. "This casts doubt on even that."The study, published today in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, provides scientific data for a debate that has largely lacked hard evidence regarding the medical underpinnings of lethal injection.

California and 11 other states have put executions on hold, mostly because of concerns over the constitutionality of lethal injection. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown intend to recommend reforms by May 15.The study is "shedding light on a process that should have been examined a long time ago," said Michael Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a Sacramento advocacy group that favors the death penalty. Though he doubted many of the study's conclusions, he thought lethal injection might be too problematic to preserve.

"The real issue should be 'Is this the best way to do this?' Let's get some doctors together and say, 'If you were going to put your mother down, how would you do it?' "Execution by lethal injection was devised in 1977, after an Oklahoma state legislator who opposed capital punishment worked with the state medical examiner to seek a more humane alternative to electric chairs and firing squads. They developed a regimen of three powerful drugs: the sedative sodium thiopental, to make the inmate unconscious; the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide, to induce paralysis; and potassium chloride, to stop the heart.

Each was supposed to induce death on its own; the combination intentionally redundant. The regimen was never scientifically tested, but it was widely adopted by other states and was used first in 1982 in Texas.More than 30 states allow the death penalty; of them, all but one offer lethal injection, and most use the three-drug regimen. But acceptance of lethal injection as a humane method of execution has been waning. Inmates filed suit, arguing that it violated the constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose put all California executions on hold last year after a challenge from San Quentin death-row inmate Michael Morales.

As of Monday, 901 inmates had been executed by lethal injection in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington group that opposes capital punishment. Ohio is scheduled to execute James Filiaggi this morning.





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