« back to article

Discuss “SciTech Briefs”

Execution by lethal injection: painless?

Researchers from Florida and Virginia have discovered that execution by lethal injection may not be painless, as it is supposed to be. The process entails the injection of three substances: sodium thiopental to induce anesthesia, pancuronium bromide to relax the muscles, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. While the process seems structured, the technicians executing the process are typically unskilled, and the procedure itself is performed without medical supervision.

According to the study, 43 of the 49 subjects were likely to have been sentient of the process. Due to the injection of the muscle relaxant, they were unable to communicate their pain. The researchers collected this data by measuring...

Comments

Be heard

Name:
Required
Email:
Optional
Comment:

Comment guidelines

If you provide an email address, it will be displayed. This may make you more vulnerable to spammers.

HTML is not allowed. Paragraphs are automatically created by leaving a blank line. Links are created from URLs automatically.

Off-topic or inappropriate (e.g. obscene, libelous) comments are not permitted and will be removed.

Important: The Tartan provides these discussion boards to encourage discussion about the topics we report. The views and opinions expressed in these comments are those of their authors, and do not reflect the opinions of The Tartan.