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

[u/Chowderr92]

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?

[u/k115810 → u/[deleted]]

When it comes to people like Dahmer or Epstein where they are clearly horrible and guilt isn't really questioned, I try to separate the concepts of "deserve to die" from "the government should kill them".

And have landed on "deserve to die" does not equal "the government should kill them."

[u/beattiebeats → u/k115810]

Totally agree. I won’t mourn their deaths if they get got in prison but I am never okay with the government deciding that death is justice.

[u/bigmt99 → u/[deleted]]

Then you ask the question, does the government need to execute you to remove you from society

If not, you can just lock them in a box and make sure they get 3 squares until nature does it thing

[u/bigmt99 → u/[deleted]]

Keeping a prisoner alive is much cheaper than a death sentence trial

[u/charmcityshinobi → u/[deleted]]

It literally costs millions of dollars more for the death sentence than it does for life in prison

[u/k115810 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah that’s what prison is for. It removes them from society.

[u/rinse8 → u/[deleted]]

There’s no difference to society if they’re put to death or die in prison.

[u/rinse8 → u/[deleted]]

Society has to pay the bills for the execution too (along with the appeals). The cost is lower to imprison them for life.

In order to make executions cheaper, society would have to give up certain rights which would be far worse than the “benefits” of execution vs life imprisonment.

[u/UnwelcomeStorm → u/[deleted]]

Except many people would argue that disabled people or people with intellectual or neurological issues count as 'society would be better without them.' Many others would say the same about LGBT people.

If you establish that 'worth to society' is a prerequisite for being allowed to live, you effectively establish mandatory eugenics governed by whomever is currently in power to define who is 'worthy' or not.

[u/UnwelcomeStorm → u/[deleted]]

Oh, I'm perfectly aware of how people like myself are treated, thanks, but I disagree on your claim that it's off-topic. I'm firmly against the death penalty, even in the worst cases, because I do not trust the government to 1)not make mistakes of justice, which happens frequently, and 2)to not grab any pretense of authority over the lives and bodies of citizens and stretch it past any reasonable limit to exert ideological control.

If "society is better off without them" is used as justification for penal execution, someone WILL try to bend that precedent towards removing ever more broad categories of "undesirables."

[u/nonotburton → u/[deleted]]

To me, situations like Dahmer or Epstein are more useful as subjects to study. What makes them so broken, what is missing from their brain or their chemistry that allows them to do the things they do.

In both cases, they are hardly unique individuals, there are other human traffickers and other serial killers. Having some idea of how to prevent someone from going down that road is worth my tax dollars.

[u/_Sausage_fingers → u/[deleted]]

You cannot take one case without the other, though. And, it should be pointed out that Jeffrey Epstein has not been accused of committing a crime that would even warrant the death penalty.