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Tennessee inmate still alive after being administered two lethal injections

47 points · 139 comments · techolic

  1. joegibbs · · focus · HN ↗
    I am very against medicalised punishments like this. It’s bad for medicine as a whole to be associated with it. I also think it prolongs the suffering of the person and often has things like this happen, and is mainly for the benefit of the audience not wanting to see icky blood.

    What is wrong with firing squads? They have been used longer than lethal injections. If they didn’t succeed the first time they can fire again. There’s no danger of the drugs not working or not being able to find a vein.

    Also I don’t think it’s right for a prisoner to be on death row for most of their lives. 4-5 years is good enough, but after that it’s cruel.

    1. WithinReason · · focus · HN ↗
      Why not use pure nitrogen gas? 100% working, no suffering.
      1. UncleMeat · · focus · HN ↗
        Because in the cases where we've used nitrogen gas we've observed people suffering. Nitrogen works if the victim breathes normally. But people naturally won't do that when you put the murder mask over their mouth and nose.
        1. karmakurtisaani · · focus · HN ↗
          I'm against the death penalty, but the engineer in me wants to solve this problem.

          So why not put the patient to sleep first with anesthetic drugs? After that the mask should not be a bother.

          1. roryirvine · · focus · HN ↗
            The problem is that anaesthesia has proven difficult for non-medics to reliably administer.

            (As demonstrated by this botched execution, which used pentobarbital - a barbituate used for anaesthesia)

            1. karmakurtisaani · · focus · HN ↗
              Right, then you need a medical professional willing to do it, and that probably gets difficult.
            2. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

              [deleted]

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