IN THE US the death penalty coexists with the hope that there is a 鈥渉umane鈥� way to kill someone. So 37 of the 38 states that sanction it use the supposedly painless lethal injection. But new evidence suggests that people may still be suffering during such executions.
In most states, the lethal injection is a three-drug cocktail: sodium thiopental to make the person unconscious; followed by pancuronium bromide to paralyse muscles and stop breathing; and finally potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Researchers led by Teresa Zimmers at the University of Miami in Florida have shown that this protocol is flawed. First, they found that the quantity of sodium thiopental administered varied enormously, from 10 to 75 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. The lower levels are barely above the dosage recommended for surgical anaesthesia. The researchers speculate that people may be conscious even as they are being suffocated from paralysis.
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鈥淧eople may be conscious even as they are being suffocated from paralysis鈥�
What鈥檚 more, execution logs showed that people鈥檚 hearts kept beating between 2 and 9 minutes after they were given potassium chloride. 鈥淸It] usually causes instantaneous cardiac arrest,鈥� says Jonathan Groner of Ohio State University. He thinks the other drugs may be delaying its effect.
Despite the results, Zimmers refuses to offer any advice on making lethal injections painless. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 unethical,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a perversion of everything we as physicians try to do.鈥�
