Death penalty etc

[Cavebear]

I have always been quietly amused at mankind's attempt to make state sanctioned executions more humane.  The Old West strung them up and with a snap of the neck they were gone, or at least seemed like it, because I don't know if their minds experienced hideous after images and pain after their feet stop twitching.

The firing squad seemed a little weird.  Ten riflemen at near point blank range, with one shooting a dummy blank.  Not a great improvement over hanging as far as I could tell, and kind of bloody, but the advantage is that it is technologically superior, as a rifle is more technologically advanced than a piece of rope.

But in my youth with the help of Thomas Edison, the electric chair was hailed as the most humane, even though electrocution is assumed to be quite painful as the condemned convulses and smoke pours out of his ears, and he continues to breath for 30 minutes after getting fried.  Clearly, it's more humane, right?

Then the gas chamber came into vogue.  Strap a guy in a chair and put him in a chamber where he chokes to death.  The chamber has windows so you can watch to see when he looks like he's dead, so you don't have to interrupt the killing process unnecessarily.

Something new was needed, and we've settled on the lethal injection of assorted poisons that few prison guards are competent enough to deliver in the right order.  While their hearts are in the right place, they continually manage to fuck it up.

There apparently is no way to kill a guy without making him suffer, and making the process more complicated doesn't seem to help at all.

Note that I didn't suggest any of the executions you mentioned...  I do know that when I was given some sedatives for my appendix operation, there were a couple hours they pretty much could have killed me in multiple ways and I would simply have never woken up.

[aitm]

there are drugs one could slip into ones dinner and voila they wake up dead. No fuss, no muss, and nobody even knew the time cept for the pill dropper. I am for that one.

[Cavebear]

there are drugs one could slip into ones dinner and voila they wake up dead. No fuss, no muss, and nobody even knew the time cept for the pill dropper. I am for that one.

And States can't buy them?  I reluctantly agree that in extreme cases beyond a shadow of doubt, some people just can't function in a society.  And an unaware "out" may be required.  In such cases, I consider it wrong not to do so.  I would rather die easily than live locked up for decades...

[Mermaid]

It's so weird that we can euthanize pets so humanely, but firing squad and electrocution are still currently on the books.

[Cavebear]

It's so weird that we can euthanize pets so humanely, but firing squad and electrocution are still currently on the books.

I've had a dear pet die in my arms from injection.  It was calm and peacable.  Much harder on me than him.  If we can do that for our pets, we should be able to do that as well for those few sad people whom we cannot live with safely.

[Baruch]

And States can't buy them?  I reluctantly agree that in extreme cases beyond a shadow of doubt, some people just can't function in a society.  And an unaware "out" may be required.  In such cases, I consider it wrong not to do so.  I would rather die easily than live locked up for decades...

The execution drug business is as corrupt as anything else the government touches, and as incompetent.  What is remarkable is when something isn't corrupt, or something is competent.  Follow the money ... it is pure rot.  Corruption only stops when the money stops.  And less corruption, means that people who know what they are doing are more likely to be in positions to do what they do best, rather than someone's nephew.

[Baruch]

It's so weird that we can euthanize pets so humanely, but firing squad and electrocution are still currently on the books.

If it is odd, then there is something bad behind it.  Pets get a gas chamber .. why can't we use that too?  We used to.  The electric chair isn't painless, it is quite spectacularly cruel, as Edison demonstrated at the behest of J P Morgan.

[Cavebear]

The execution drug business is as corrupt as anything else the government touches, and as incompetent.  What is remarkable is when something isn't corrupt, or something is competent.  Follow the money ... it is pure rot.  Corruption only stops when the money stops.  And less corruption, means that people who know what they are doing are more likely to be in positions to do what they do best, rather than someone's nephew.

Pet euthansia works.  Skeeter looked at me, purring, received the one shot, and fell asleep.  While asleep, he died.  Not so much as a twitch... Neither you or I would be allowed to die so peacefully.  Because society is insane about human life, fearing to end it because of religious claptrap.  I won't abide by that.

It isn't corruption that stops us from ending some lives painlessly; it is the humancrrated fear of punishment after death.  Can't we t least forgive each other our errors in life to allow a peaceful death?  We have the means.  We lack the compassion.

[SGOS]

It's so weird that we can euthanize pets so humanely, but firing squad and electrocution are still currently on the books.

When my old dog was put away, it was simple but what the vet called a massive overdose of barbiturates.  I held my dog's head in my hands and told him what a good friend he had been, and scant seconds after the shot he just collapsed and let out a huge breath.  I looked at the vet who simply said, "He's gone now."  There were no convulsions or twitches.  It was still heartbreaking, but he didn't suffer.

[Cavebear]

When my old dog was put away, it was simple but what the vet called a massive overdose of barbiturates.  I held my dog's head in my hands and told him what a good friend he had been, and scant seconds after the shot he just collapsed and let out a huge breath.  I looked at the vet who simply said, "He's gone now."  There were no convulsions or twitches.  It was still heartbreaking, but he didn't suffer.

We (and many I expect) share that same experience.  All humans should have the same right.  What stops us?

[SGOS]

We (and many I expect) share that same experience.  All humans should have the same right.  What stops us?

My first thought was, "Religion," but it's probably more complicated than that.  We seem to want people to die naturally, even if it often involves suffering.  Perhaps people are thinking, "We know this guy is going to die, but there's a chance that a miraculous change might occur, so we should do nothing."

[Baruch]

We (and many I expect) share that same experience.  All humans should have the same right.  What stops us?

Pets can't vote.  People can.  But Hospice is not unlike euthanasia.  But your caregiver has to qualify you, you can't qualify yourself.

[Cavebear]

My first thought was, "Religion," but it's probably more complicated than that.  We seem to want people to die naturally, even if it often involves suffering.  Perhaps people are thinking, "We know this guy is going to die, but there's a chance that a miraculous change might occur, so we should do nothing."

BECAUSE we have the idea that death is for animals but not for humans...  We need to get over that.  We all die.  And it is forever.

[Baruch]

BECAUSE we have the idea that death is for animals but not for humans...  We need to get over that.  We all die.  And it is forever.

Well, if you want life-death decisions made by individuals on their own recognizance, then the NRA is for you ;-(

[Cavebear]

Pets can't vote.  People can.  But Hospice is not unlike euthanasia.  But your caregiver has to qualify you, you can't qualify yourself.

Skeeter didn't vote to be killed.  But he was so worn out and forlorn he could barely walk leaning against the hallway wall.  The Vet wouldn't do the euthaansia until then. I have advised the vet that it will NEVER come to that again, BTW.

But *I* chose his time ultimately.  As I demand the right to choose my own time.