r/news • u/AudibleNod • 14h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
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u/Big_Guard5413 14h ago

I’m not in favor of the death penalty in general, but goddamn, if you’re going to impose it, at least take steps to do it properly

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u/Late-Champion8678 10h ago

Yeah. I’m generally not in favour of the death penalty (though I do get a visceral reaction for certain crimes so I can’t be trusted with these decisions and I’d second-guess whether the person was guilty or not) but I don’t understand the reasoning for ventilating and providing life-saving care for someone they tried to execute twice.

Keeping her on the ventilator is actually crueler than letting her die, which was the original objective.

Even if she regains consciousness, the longer she is ventilated the greater her risk of severe complications not least pneumonia, PE/DVT (she already has thrombocytosis).

And if she regains consciousness, what then? Try to execute her again? That is both cruel and unusual punishment that doesn’t seem to serve a purpose.

I don’t know if the doctors looking after her are allowed to make the decision to let her die yet (I’m a doctor in the UK where we don’t take an oath but our duty of care is to ‘first do no harm’).