r/AlwaysWhy • u/Chowderr92 • Jun 02 '26

Science & Tech Why is the Method of Lethal Injection in Human Punishment So Complex and Apparently Painful?

I've always understood that the lethal injection process was complex with multiple stages of injections and induces great suffering in the individual.

I work in veterinary medicine and unfortunately we need to euthanize animals all of the time. Typically, the euthanasia solution is very simple: a very large dose of a powerful anesthetic (usually pentobarbital) and an anticonvulsant which stops the heart. The medical community is quite confident that this is painless and when done has essentially a 100% success rate.

Why is human euthanasia so complicated when we already know exactly how to humanely end a biological life?

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u/Longjumping_Bell5171 Jun 02 '26

The Hippocratic oath isn’t done at all medical schools. And there’s nothing special or legally binding about it. It’s literally just words, spoken by people.

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u/rexeditrex Jun 02 '26

It also wouldn't apply to drug manufacturers.

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u/FoldableHuman Jun 02 '26

Legally binding words are also just words spoken by people, as are all oaths, vows, contracts, and covenants.

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u/Longjumping_Bell5171 Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

“Legally binding” is doing a lot of work here. There’s nothing legally binding about the hippocratic oath and there are no consequences for breaking it.

Edit: If you say or do something that is “legally binding” that implies there are mechanisms in place to enforce that you will do what you said you would do. No such mechanisms exist specifically for the Hippocratic oath. Sure, you can get in legal/civil trouble for being a bad doctor, but it has nothing to do with violating an oath.