Really – I’m serious. Do most of us find the notion that a murderer sentenced to death isn’t just whisked away into a dreamless sleep the least bit disturbing? I know it doesn’t trouble me at all.

The drugs used to execute prisoners in the United States sometimes fail to work as planned, causing slow and painful deaths that probably violate constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment, a new medical review of dozens of executions concludes.

Even when administered properly, the three-drug lethal injection method appears to have caused some inmates to suffocate while they were conscious and unable to move, instead of having their hearts stopped while they were sedated, scientists said in a report published Monday by the online journal PLoS Medicine.

No scientific groups have validated that lethal injection is humane, the authors write. Medical ethics bar doctors and other health professionals from taking part in executions.

The study concluded that the typical "one-size-fits-all" doses of anesthetic do not take into account an inmate's weight and other key factors.

The journal's editors call for abolishing the death penalty.

Personally, I’m all for replicating the sort of horror they perpetrated upon their victims – but if that troubles the squeamish, I’m all for bringing back the firing squad or the guillotine.

Posted by: Greg at 09:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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