What is the most humane form of death?

Death penalty by injecting drugs for death row inmates has helped end the gruesome executions of the past. However, after a series of "error" executions, the humanity of this form was placed ahead of questions. Is there any other option?

Typical offenders

Taking the last word " I love you", then the Muslim prayer, death row inmate Charles Brooks Jr., takes his eyes off his girlfriend and feels death come.

He lay on a white stretcher, clothes from head to toe in the 80s fashion style, with yellow pants and a buttoned shirt. On one hand he attached a tube and surrounded the doctors. The man looks like a patient in the hospital.

However, it was Charles's last moments in the death room at a Texas prison. It was in 1982, the first time the injection was applied to death row inmates in the United States.

Previously, the nation's popular death penalty was using electric chairs - a form that is now considered torture. It is very violent, sometimes the victim's eyeball will pop out and fall on the cheek. This form also often burns hair, the executioners must leave fire extinguishers nearby to take precautions.

The injection is rated as better and more advanced, does not cause bloodshed, no screaming. A witness before Brooks' death said the offender was only slightly yawned and vomiting slightly. A few minutes later, a doctor said, "I will announce, this man is dead."

To date, this method is still the first choice in US states - where death is considered legal. However, it may not be "as peaceful" as people still see. The problem is, no one can really verify. No research or testing of any kind.

Betty Lou Beets was charged with killing her fifth husband in 1985 and was executed by injection in 2000. (Photo: Getty Images).

Back in 2005, when more than one thousand deaths were made by injecting drugs, a group of scientists decided to study this form. Led by Leonidas Koniaris, an Indiana surgeon, Indianapolis, the team studied death records in Texas, Virginia and found that 44% of death row inmates were probably aware when they died and could have experienced through feelings of pain. They cannot writhe or scream just because the injection contains muscle paralysis.

Some "error" executions

Further research shows that one of the heart's inactive agents did not work."What happens based on this data is very, very disturbing. This means the death mechanism of death row inmates is choking." The expert said: "It is a gruesome scenario. It can be said, we have used a brutal murder method." Although most Americans agree with the death penalty, very few people want executioners to suffer.

Currently, the continuous lack of death drugs has led some states to test alternatives. As a result, some executions were "faulty", such as a man taking up to 2 hours with 640 short breaths before dying. It can be said, the form of injecting drugs for death from the crisis period.

Is there any more humane form?

For thousands of years, the execution of death has been made public by the public. From drowning offenders with sacks with animals, to purging the lungs, humanity does not seem to be lacking in ideas - and less humane to enact death forms.

For thousands of years, execution has been made public.(Photo: Getty Images).

In ancient Persia, the "schapism" form of death was applied . Accordingly, the victim was sandwiched between two boats one on one under, with arms and legs sticking out, then covered with milk and honey and left to allow pests to invade. A tourist visiting Delhi, India in the 14th century recounted that the elephants trained with ivory were equipped with knives to cut death row inmates into pieces.

Guillotine

However, the humanity in execution has been concerned for several hundred years. It was started in 1789, with the advent of the guillotine. At that time, the French Revolution had just begun and the leaders of Paris aristocracy initiated this form. After a series of bloody executions, there are times when the ax is used, obviously the death penalty needs to be modernized.

Doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin - the first person to assume that execution should be more humane. He suggested using guillotine as an alternative. In his speech, he said: "At the moment, my machine can behead the criminal in a blink of an eye and they cannot feel anything . " Then people named the machine after his name, although Guillotin did not actually invent it.

The guillotine consists of an inclined knife, hanging above the victim with a wooden rack. Some models of guillotine also have a basket to hold the head. With the weight of the blade, this method proved to be faster and " more reliable" than manual head removal.

So where is this method humane? Tests on white mice with small guillotines are a testament to this.

The most common form of death penalty is hanging.(Photo: Getty Images).

A study from 1975 showed that cognitive signs existed between 9 and 18 seconds after animals were beheaded. This period of time has been demonstrated in other animals, so it may be similar to humans.

Hanged

Currently beheading is still in place, especially in Saudi Arabia, where 146 people have been executed in this way in 2017. However, so far the most common form of death is hanging.

There are two hanging practices: "short drop" and "long drop". Immediately in the name, short release will drop death row prisoners from lower altitudes and kill death row inmates by suffocation. This way is often said to be very painful.

"Long drop" is considered more humane. In the "standard" scenario, the rope will break the second bone on the victim's neck. The "fracture of the neck" also cuts off the spinal cord, causing the death row's blood pressure to drop in less than a second. Victims often lose consciousness immediately, although it may take up to 20 minutes for their heart to stop beating.

To perform exactly like the script, this method requires meticulous calculations. If the drop is too long, the offender's head will fall off. Conversely, if too short, death row inmates will suffocate to death."In my experience, there are a lot of errors that occurred, not exactly as they were," said Megan McCracken of the death clinic at UC Berkeley. Since 1996, the US has no longer used this execution method.

Rifle

Although firing is often related to war and military crimes, this form has recently been adopted by the State of Utah as a backup. Shootings are also frequently used in North Korea.

Firefighting has been used for hundreds of years.(Photo: Getty Images).

In a typical execution, a criminal is fixed to a chair with a ring on his head. Then five gunners will shoot at their chests.

In 1938, the State of Utah used this method to execute John Deering - a 40-year-old man convicted of murder. The offender decided to connect himself to an electrocardiogram while he was executed. Thus, we can imagine the mechanism by which this form works.

The display shows Deering's heart stopped beating just 15 seconds after being shot. It is impossible to know for sure how long the death row inmate was. Tests on white mice in 2015 showed that there was an increase in brain activity lasting about 30 seconds. This may explain why those who have experienced a moment of near death tell of a high sense of awareness. After that, everything went dark.

Electric chair

Electric chair was first invented as a more humane alternative to hanging. Like a guillotine and poison injection, it is considered civilized and scientific.

Like a guillotine and poison injection machine, the electric chair was originally considered a civilized and scientific execution.(Photo: Getty Images).

One of the authors of this form - a dentist, heard about a drunken dock worker who touched the generator and died instantly. From there, he came up with the idea of ​​an electric chair. This form was used to execute a murderer 3 years later.

The "stable" stage of the electric chair does not last long. Not long after, the public became aware that electric chair deaths were often "messy". 9 US states continue to use electric seats as backup options, although this is controversial.

Gas suffocation

Electric chair problems lead us to the latest idea: "suffocating" , or replacing oxygen with inert gas such as nitrogen or helium. This method was first introduced by former British minister Michael Portillo. In How To Kill a Human Being , he declares that this method is "a perfect killing device".

However, this method also quickly collapsed. A study from the 1960s showed that volunteers who breathed pure nitrogen lost consciousness for about 17-20 seconds. While, based on animal studies, it was assumed that death row inmates would stop breathing after 3 seconds.

There have long been concerns about the humanity of execution.(Credit: Getty Images).

And due to biological characteristics, asphyxiation does not seem to cause pain because the body cannot detect lack of oxygen. The phenomenon is that excess carbon dioxide causes blood acidity and pain in the calf like after exercise. This means this form does not cause suffocation.

So how does it feel?

John Levinson, a cardiologist and pilot in Boston, Massachusetts, has "experience" about this. A few years ago, he drove his Mooney plane at 23,000 feet (7km) - the height at which the Earth's atmosphere was thinner and pilots had to use additional oxygen.

Then he did a dangerous job of inclined a corner of the mask and continued to breathe."After about 30 seconds, I felt very strange," he said. "I don't see hallucinations, pain or panic, I just feel weird. It's not like alcohol or any other substance."

The very small symptoms of hypoxia are especially dangerous for pilots at high altitudes. They could not recognize the abnormality. This is also said to be the cause of killing a man earlier this year. This person had lost consciousness in his small plane before missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Speaking of execution, I think people need to understand that the capital punishment is not humanitarian yet" - Robert Dunham.(Photo: Getty Images).

In the case of Levinson, he was flying with his instructor and he landed safely when he fainted. The feeling of air choking helped him realize when he encountered a similar problem later. Years later, while flying with his wife, Levinson began to feel strange. He recognized the phenomenon immediately and adjusted the oxygen source before anyone was injured.

Three US states now use gas as a backup. But does that continue to be a mistake?

Robert Dunham, a lawyer and CEO of the Death Penalty Information Center, certainly thinks so."Breathlessness doesn't happen as quickly as it was introduced. On animals, cats and dogs are aware of the imminent death before losing consciousness. And it takes at least seven minutes to make a pig die. this way".

One of the fundamental problems is that this method depends on the cooperation of the prisoner: if they hold their breath or their breath is too shallow, it may take longer to kill them."Of course I understand, theoretically this is a humanitarian form. But it's different from what actually happens in a execution room , " McCracken said.

According to Dunham, the victims may need to be anesthetized first. And this brings us back to the problems faced by the human drug injection: no pharmaceutical company wants their drugs to kill people.

"The main problem is that people want death row inmates to be executed, but do not want to kill anyone in a cruel way. It is an internal conflict , " he said.

"When it comes to execution, I think people need to understand that the death penalty is inherently humane."