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stellauk -> RE: Executing the Mentally Ill (8/10/2012 5:11:01 AM)
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You know, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day how many US Supreme Court rulings you have excluding juveniles, the mentally retarded, the mentally ill or anybody else.
It doesn't really matter that you have rulings abandoning the electric chair and firing squad in favour of lethal injection.
Every time there is an execution and each and every time death is pronounced you have killed someone's child, someone's parent, someone's partner, someone's relative and that someone is left bereaved and suffering.
That someone has no relation to the crime committed. And yet they are also being punished.
Furthermore lethal injection isn't as clinical or as humane as you think.
Some states use one drug - sodium thiopental, others use two more - potassium chloride and pancurom bromide (Pavulon).
These three drugs require administration intravenously under the direct supervision of a trained clinical anaesthetologist through an IV drip.
Sodium thiopental puts someone to sleep and causes unconciousness. Pancurom bromide is a muscle relaxant which causes 'skeletal paralysis' - you cannot move because you are paralyzed. Potassium chloride is a salt.
An execution is only humane if administered correctly, where sodium thiopental causes a loss of consciousness within a minute of it being administered, the IV line is flushed after each time the drug is administered. Pancurom bromide depresses the diaphram and stops both breathing and circulation.
This is also dependent on the IV line remaining in the vein the whole time.
However the AMA has already forbidden doctors from participating in state executions. There is a shortage of sodium thiopental in the United States, so states have to purchase it elsewhere.
Therefore often there are no trained medical personnel taking part in an execution. Therefore there is nobody present who is qualified to assess the depth of unconciousness or who can identify many of the problems which can occur during the administration of drugs through an IV line.
If you have ever spent time in hospital with an intravenous drip you will probably appreciate that although this is a straightforward medical procedure it can become complicated and problematic very easily.
The thing is that the normal pH of a human body is around 7.4, and the pH of sodium thiopental is around 11. Therefore if it is administered subcutaneously not only does it cause significant burning pain, but it also fails to deliver the lethal dose in the correct manner. Something similar happens with the other drugs.
What you have then is an inmate who is paralyzed and very slowly choking to death.
And if you're prepared to accept that level of risk, you might as well execute condemned prisoners with a couple of Western diamondback rattlesnakes.
Drug abuse, drug dealing, using untrained personnel for medical prodecures, punishing people not connected to the crime - this is the reality of the death penalty as it stands today.
How can that be morally any different from what the criminals are doing?
In fact, given that most victims of murders are killed by gunshot, you can even argue that on the whole, you are more likely to suffer a humane and dignified death as a murder victim in the United States than you are as a condemned prisoner on Death Row.
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