Lethal Injection May Cause Horrific Pain and Slow Suffocation

A new medical study says that lethal injection, the accepted practice of putting prisoners to death in the United States, can possibly result in a very slow death. It can be extremely painful, and some inmates may actually be conscious, unable to move, as they suffocate.

Public Library of Science (PLoS), an online medical journal, published the study. This organization includes influential and highly respected persons in the fields of medicine and science, including Harold Varmus, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, and a co-recipient of a Nobel prize.

This particular study was prompted last year when a federal judge in California ordered doctors to assist in the killing of Michael Morales. Morales was convicted of raping and murdering a teenage girl. Doctors refused, and the legal arguments in this case are still ongoing.

While most Americans are under the impression that lethal injection is a humane form of death, the authors of this study state that no scientific group has ever been able to validate such a claim. That is why doctors and health professionals are barred from participating in executions due to medical ethics.

The PLoS study followed dozens of executions. They found that each inmate receives the same dosage of anesthetic. There is no variance based on the person's weight or other key factors that doctors typically utilize when administering medications. The authors of the study say that there were inmates that received too small an amount of anesthetic. There were also cases when the anesthetic wore off before death had occurred.

"You wouldn't be able to use this protocol to kill a pig at the University of Miami" without proving that it was as effective as stated, said Teresa Zimmers, a biologist who led the study.