The Lethal Injection: We Do It Better on Pigs Than on Humans

When this method was introduced in the late 1970s in Oklahoma, it was regarded as a more human way of execution and was soon adopted by many states as the main form of death penalty. Lethal injection, in which three toxic chemicals are administered to the condemned (sodium thiopental, an anesthestetic; pancuronium bromide, a general paralyzer, and potassium chloride, a salt that stops the heartbeat), largely replaced the more "barbaric" methods like hanging, firing squad, gas chamber and electric chair, considered inhumane or excessively violent. Yet, the lethal injection proves to be no different than these methods.

A new report shows that unskilled executioners have induced prolonged suffering in the condemned by mishandling the deadly drug cocktail, in cases when they missed veins, or misjudged doses, facts that induced anesthesia and chemical burns apart from a slow death due to the asphyxiation determined by total paralysis.

As trained medical personnel is not allowed to participate in such actions (due to Hippocrates' vow "Do no harm..."), amateurs and their ad hoc methods perform such "activities". This seems to have changes somewhat due to numerous botched lethal injections; moratoriums on the practice have also been made in about 12 of the 38 U.S. states that apply the death penalty.

The drug protocols employed for most lethal injections have been also challenged by scientific reviews. Wrong concentrations would induce death with unnecessary or gratuitous pain, the "cruel and unusual punishment" being forbidden by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The cocktail of drugs is meant to induce toxic redundancy so that each drug alone would provoke death. Dosages are kept the same whether the condemned weighs 150 pounds (68 kg) or twice that value. That's why, on many occasions, the drugs did not totally impair the breathing muscles, heart, or nerves.

The authors signal that guidelines for lethal injections are better documented for veterinary use than for use on humans. Only two researches have been made on lethal injections, analyzing 41 cases out of the 904 lethal injections that have been conducted in the U.S. till now.