2007/11/06 Amsterdam
Three-drug cocktail
Pain
In yesterday’s Herald Tribune Mark Essig wrote an interesting article about the death penalty:
“It is the inverse of the guillotine. Rather than painless for the convict but gruesome for witnesses, the three-drug cocktail may be easy on witnesses but brutal for the victim - an inert body suffering unspeakable pain.
The Supreme Court may end up banning the cocktail, but such a ruling would only inspire state officials to mix up a new set of drugs. The new protocol may at first appear to work smoothly, but decades of executions have taught us this: Technical systems are prone to failure, and human bodies are irreducibly complex and idiosyncratic. Whatever the technique, executions will go horrifyingly wrong.
Pain is often a necessary part of death.”
Mr. Essig of course is right. We don't want the witnesses and executioners to watch how the convict dies a gruesome death.
Mr. Himmler came up with the idea of gas chambers to spare the German troops.
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18 comments 
That was very thoughtful of Mr. Himmler.
But I think you're talking of innocent people here?
The ones that get the three-drug cocktail are not innocent, are they?
But I think you're talking of innocent people here?
The ones that get the three-drug cocktail are not innocent, are they?
if pain is a necessary part of death, i see no reason why convicts should have a guaranteed pain free death, while many of us will die suffering.
this being said, death is cruel enough as it is - we should not and do not need to interfere in any way
this being said, death is cruel enough as it is - we should not and do not need to interfere in any way
What a thing looks like has become more important than what it brings about or is (i have to admit that 'is' is subjective) nowadays.
I may be immature as it comes to morals (that is why i cannot fully appreciate Susan Sonntag's 'On Photography') but i am still shocked by things i see.
I may be immature as it comes to morals (that is why i cannot fully appreciate Susan Sonntag's 'On Photography') but i am still shocked by things i see.
@Anna D
Some were found innocent after their execution. Or do you think judges or juries cannot make mistakes? Or shall we consider the executed innocents as inevitable collateral damage?
http://www.amnestyusa.org/Fact_Sheets/The_Death_Penalty_Claims_Innocent_Lives/page.do?id=1101086&n1=3&n2=28&n3=99
Some were found innocent after their execution. Or do you think judges or juries cannot make mistakes? Or shall we consider the executed innocents as inevitable collateral damage?
http://www.amnestyusa.org/Fact_Sheets/The_Death_Penalty_Claims_Innocent_Lives/page.do?id=1101086&n1=3&n2=28&n3=99
Ivo
Whatever a convict has done doesn´t give anybody the right to hurt or kill him. If you want to hurt someone because he hurt you you act on the rule "an eye for an eye". A reaction like this would be called self-administered justice and is therefore very immoral.Or shall we consider all executions as inevitable collateral damage of society?
Innocent people being executed is of course the ultimate failure but i do think that this should not hide the remarkable way governments deal with lives.
Innocent people being executed is of course the ultimate failure but i do think that this should not hide the remarkable way governments deal with lives.
Friede
"the remarkable way governments deal with lives"? What do you mean by that?This must be a hoax.
Death by three-drug cocktails is painless (I think) but the next of kin of the victims want retaliation so for them it's important to know that it's painful.
Mark Essig (Essig = Vinegar) helps the relatives to cope with the loss of their loved ones and with their feelings of revenge with this article.
Furthermore I couldn't care less if it's painless or painful or whatever.
Death by three-drug cocktails is painless (I think) but the next of kin of the victims want retaliation so for them it's important to know that it's painful.
Mark Essig (Essig = Vinegar) helps the relatives to cope with the loss of their loved ones and with their feelings of revenge with this article.
Furthermore I couldn't care less if it's painless or painful or whatever.
Or shall we consider the executed innocents as inevitable collateral damage?
Yes, let's do that. In a system of juries and judges who make mistakes that's most convenient.
Yes, let's do that. In a system of juries and judges who make mistakes that's most convenient.
Anna D
The article is definitely not a hoax.Anna D.
You should read the other comments carefully before you post another.Thank you.
Liebe Gruesse,
Manon Kadoke
A theoretical discussion about pain or no pain or wether someone committed the crime or not should not blur the fact that reprentators of democratic civilizations still see a solution for a problem in murdering people by the incredible lightness of being in charge.Something unrelated
Question for Batta: I've been wondering where you are?If you want to combine death penalty with a painless ending, something that seems strange to me, you might want to execute the prisoners a few minutes after their death sentence. No matter how painful the few minutes of dying are, the prisoners suffered less than waiting for decades to die in horrible prisons. The daily confrontation with ones end, the hopeless situation, the meaningless existence, it all seems worse to me than being dead.
It must be hard to think of a 'human' method to kill someone, since you can't send a questionnaire to the subject after the event. But the death by carbon monoxide seems rather pleasant compared to hanging, injection or, at worst, the electric chair. One falls asleep and then slowly the body shuts down.
It must be hard to think of a 'human' method to kill someone, since you can't send a questionnaire to the subject after the event. But the death by carbon monoxide seems rather pleasant compared to hanging, injection or, at worst, the electric chair. One falls asleep and then slowly the body shuts down.
Quote: "Pain is often a necessary part of death.”
I just wandered how pain can be a part of death. Death is already the end of life; there are no more parts of pain whatsoever in there for the deceased one.f. fiddelaar
Not death itself is painful but the process of dying can be.Manon Kadoke
I know, therefore, the word 'death' should be replaced by the word 'dying'. Pain sometimes is an inevitable part in the process of dying. It's a delicate thing as it is in the process of convicting a human being to a capital punishment. And humans are the most unprecise creatures ever to be made cause they're human.Nwa... They should just lock these criminals up for life, which causes more pain than a painfull death by these cocktails. In my opinion.
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