Lethal injections

Figure 4. Effect of pretreatment with hydrocortisone (50 mg/kg) on response of animal to a lethal injection of palytoxin (0.01 /ig/kg).

Ingestion of large doses can cause irritation of the gastrointestinal tract and nausea. Potassium chloride can stop the heart beat and is a component of lethal injections. 

Barbiturates such as mephobarbital (Mebaral) and pentobarbital (Nembutal), although not prescribed as often as the BZDs, may be used to treat anxiety, tension, and sleep disorders. Veterinarians also use pentobarbital (Nembutal) for anesthesia and euthanasia. In some states, a form of barbiturate is used to execute criminals by lethal injection. 

At first his cry was clearly audible but as the minutes went by he became less and less understandable and finally, more than ten minutes into the execution, there was just a mutter. He was declared dead only after eighteen minutes. The witnesses to the execution were horrified. The warden of the prison who had also supervised the execution was so shaken that he resigned. Because of this execution fiasco, executions with poison gas have been abandoned for a short period of time in the USA and replaced with lethal injections. 

America s first and foremost supplier of execution hardware. His products include electric chairs, gas chambers, gallows, and lethal injection machines. He offers design, construction, installation, staff training and maintenance. ... 

Lethal injections were a common crime of the Nazi doctor, neat and simple in its application, cruel and horrid in result. 

The use of lethal injection as a form of execution began in Nazi Germany as early as the fall of 1939. 

In large doses, injected intravenously, it would bum and hurt horribly, because it s a salt and because it instantly throws off the chemical balance of the blood with which it comes into contact. It makes all muscles lock up in extreme contraction that would hurt unbearably. It wouldn t get to all muscles when a prisoner is being killed with it, however. Since the heart is a muscle and it pumps the blood -- the minute that massive dose of potassium salt hits the heart, one would be history and that would be as far as it would travel. "In lethal injection, three chemicals are used to kill. First, sodium pentothal (its trade name) or thiopental sodium (its chemical name). Then one minute later they inject pavulon. One minute later the potassium chloride. Pentothal is a short acting barbituric acid (barbiturate used in anaesthesia) and is commonly called "truth serum" as it s used in narcoanalysis. It knocks one out. It s a hypnotic. Pavulon is a curare derivative which locks up the lungs so one can t breathe. 

Lethal injection executions depend on medical drugs and procedures and the potential of this kind of execution to involve medical professionals in unethical behavior, including direct involvement in killing, is clear. 

Because of this, there has been a long-standing campaign by some individual health professionals and some professional bodies to prohibit medical participation in lethal injection executions. 

Poisoning has also been used as a means of official execution. The American states that use the gas chamber for executing criminals employ cyanide gas for the purpose. These days a lethal injection is the more usual method of execution. In some states in the USA and in China (which approved this method of execution only in 1997), for example, three chemicals are used. First, a barbiturate drug (sodium thiopental) is injected into a vein (this is called an intravenous injection), which rapidly causes unconsciousness (within thirty seconds). The victim is therefore unaware of what follows. Then pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant drug, is injected into the vein, which paralyses the muscles of the diaphragm within about three minutes and so stops respiration. Finally, a... 

Kalin JR, Brissie RM. A case of homicide by lethal injection with lidocaine. J Forensic Sci 2002 47(5) 1135-8. 

The immune system of Drosophila seems to have two main subsystems, one involving the antibacterial proteins and the other identified by bacteria-sensitive lethal mutations. The humoral subsystem results in the production of diffusible antibacterial proteins of at least three species. Stock Cu, which lacks the ABs found in wild type Drosophila and which is correspondingly more sensitive to infection, blocks a part of this subsystem. That the ABs do help flies to survive bacterial infections was shown by inducing ABs to appear in bsl mutants by injection of dead bacteria and then finding that the inoculated mutants would survive an otherwise lethal injection of live bacteria. Evidently inoculation induces processes (perhaps secretion of ABs) that can overcome the deficiency in the bsl mutations. Similar experiments showed that inoculation protects locusts from a lethal dose of bacteria (19). 

There is one, as yet, unsolved mystery in the snake world. Surely when snakes evenomate they swallow a small amount of their own poison, and when they eat their prey that has been killed by their own lethal injection they ingest these lethal chemicals. Why then are snakes not killed by their own toxins This is perfect evolution. The snakes produce some of the most lethal poisons in the world, but appear to be immune to their effects. 

One use of potassium chloride is as a lethal injection for prisoners who have been given the death penalty. The chemical interferes with normal heart function and causes a heart attack within five... 

The narcotic, fentanyl, which is widely used as an anesthetic, has become abusecL In Philadelpbia, there were 53 fatal doses between April and June 2006. In Chicago, there were 100 deaths in 2006. Across the entire United States, there were at least 500 deaths in 2006. Fentanyl is often mixed with heroin to boost tbe high, and it is sold under the street names of Drop Dead, Lethal Injection, and Get High or Die Trying. In Baltimore, the heroin-addicted population is estimated to be 60,000. Fentanyl is sold on the street under the names China White and Tango Cash. 

This obsession with fighting germs has gotten ridiculous. It s gotten so bad that before they give a lethal injection they swab the spot with alcohol. 

The important difference between active and passive euthanasia is that in passive euthanasia the doctor does not do anything to bring about the patienfs death. The doctor does nothing and the patient dies of whatever iUs already afOict him. In active euthanasia, however, the doctor does something to bring about the patienfs death he kiUs the person. The doctor who gives the patient with cancer a lethal injection has himself caused his patient s death whereas if he merely ceases treatment, the cancer is the cause of death. 

Unlike other forms of execution, death by lethal injection of potassium chloride does not harm the organs of the body. Thus condemned criminals who are executed in this manner could potentially donate their organs for transplants. However, this idea is very controversial. 

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