Why do we use a Rube Goldberg contraption and three different chemicals?
There's some evidence that the combination used is torturing the condemned, but we can't tell because the muscle relaxer makes them unresponsive.
That bugs me.
But there's a better chemical!
And it's just a single chemical!
Heroin!
We know enough about it that we can certainly administer the LD100 reliably, even mix up LD150.
No rumors of torture and as long as the War On (Some) Drugs continues, it's free from seized supplies!
Or we mandate that it must be made from Pure Afghani Poppies® and buy their entire crop every year. That solves several problems, actually...
Hell we use Morphine drip as a way to cause respiratory arrest in patients in the horribly painful end-of-life stages for many diseases.
ReplyDeleteThe Doctors will claim its "For the Pain", but really its ending suffering.
Also the Rube-Goldberg Lethal Injection system has a lot of controversy that it might cause an agonizing death.
Meanwhile respiratory arrest via opiates is about as good a way as anybody can go.
Of course long-drop hanging is just as good. But Americans consider "Humane Death" as "Anything That's Clean".
With Opiates some of the condemned might puke their guts out just before passing out (especially given that many of them have big last meals).
Still I've talked to former Heroin addicts, and they say "Yeah you sometimes puke, but you're so high you don't really mind doing it".