So I can understand a drug to knock a person out and then a drug to kill them, but then why a drug in-between to also paralyze them?
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The human body doesn’t want to die. Even if you are unconscious your body is still going to react to the stuff thats killing it. The paralytic is added so the person being executed doesn’t violently flop around. Its very unnerving to watch someone die that way and very few people would have the stomach to watch it, much less carry out the sentence. Most of what we do for capital punishment is more for our comfort than the comfort of the person being killed.
So there is a thing called death throes, ad your body will spazim and junk around after you dies. Here is how it works
Your brain sends signals to your muscles to move, but your brain does not send all the electricity to the mussels for their power.
The muscles have their own stored power within them, once the brain shuts off the nerves don’t know what to do and just start firing everything. It is what happens with seizures, muscle cramps, and some forms of twitching
The paralyzing agent is not for the benefit of the soon to be dead guy, it’s for the audience.
There are many other problems with lethal injection but I would recommend watching “last week tonight” on the subject
The paralyzing drug exists to trick the audience into thinking there is no suffering.
The real progression is supposed to be saline to clear the arteries, a sleep agent, then a paralytic.
It doesn’t work. It’s why the US is reactivating the gas chamber, firing squad, and electric chair. Because none of the drug combinations work and these other methods are “less cruel.”
Some people get traumatized when they see a person flailing about as their body struggles to stay alive.
So we paralyze them so that the people watching don’t get traumatized by watching someone die.
Yes, that’s supposed to make sense.
How about two grams of Fentanyl?
That’s not meant for the person being killed. It’s to minimize the unsightly and upsetting thrashing about that might show execution to be as cruel as it is. We like our barbarian punishments to be discreet.
That’s for executions with 3 drugs which was the original protocol, but executions with 1 drug are also common now as in Texas.
It’a worth noting that the drugs used in lethal injection are considered extremely painful and inhumane. To the point that many have suggested hangings or guillotines as a better option. This is partly due to the fact that no Physicians will take part in its development, as doing so would violate their oath to “do no harm.” This means that the drugs being used have very little testing and are basically a giant mess and often won’t work properly.
When my pets have been put to sleep it was very fast and certainly not traumatic, heartbreaking but peaceful. Not sure it could be used on humans given the weight difference. I work in post -op and I’m pretty sure any anesthesiologist could manage a quick and quiet death.
The typical cocktail used here would be a sedative to put the condemned to sleep it’s a benzo like midazolam then a paralytic a agent to make arrest the respiratory muscles like pancuronium then the lastly a lethal dose of potassium to stop the heart
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