@shavixmir
Perhaps the French had the best solution.
"The guillotine was introduced in France in 1792 as a more humane method of execution, designed to ensure equality in capital punishment regardless of social class. It was used until 1977, when the last execution by guillotine took place."
@mwmiller saidHow long does the brain remain alive afterward? I can't imagine what kind of trauma is being experienced by those people until they finally die.
@shavixmir
Perhaps the French had the best solution.
"The guillotine was introduced in France in 1792 as a more humane method of execution, designed to ensure equality in capital punishment regardless of social class. It was used until 1977, when the last execution by guillotine took place."
@vivify saidIt's called capital PUNISHMENT for a reason, so it really doesn't matter.
How long does the brain remain alive afterward? I can't imagine what kind of trauma is being experienced by those people until they finally die.
Just think of that time as part of the punishment.
@sh76 saidI agree, it's a horror-show. This probably constitutes some sort of cruelty, though, given the failure rate of executions in the USA, not unusual.
Can you imagine what her first thoughts were?
The last thing she knew she was on a gurney with drugs being delivered to her veins. She's expected to die. Then she wakes up.
You think her first throughts were "Why does the afterlife look like a hospital room"?
@mwmiller saidYour post about the guillotine being a more "humane" method of execution, which seemed dubious.
It's called capital PUNISHMENT for a reason, so it really doesn't matter.
Just think of that time as part of the punishment.
Other than that, it probably doesn't matter.
@vivify saidThe two most sudden means of execution are
How long does the brain remain alive afterward? I can't imagine what kind of trauma is being experienced by those people until they finally die.
a) hanging, assuming the noose is fixed properly and the drop given causes a jerk to the head, driving a fractured vertebra into the spinal column, severing the brain from the rest of the body;
and b) decapitation.
My wife is a neuro-radiologist. She looks at brain scans of patients with severe spinal injuries and is one of the people responsible for deciding whether a body delivered to the emergency room is an organ donor candidate (i.e. brain dead). It is her professional opinion that the two methods of execution mentioned above cause such immediate and catastrophic trauma to the entire organism, that a person so affected probably experiences an intense blast of simultaneous stimulation on all sensory input channels of such intensity that it is not processable consciously--for less than a second, and then--nothing. Just nothing.
Rather like, I suppose, seeing Allah without the 70,000 veils.
Whereas, after cardiac arrest, for example death by firing squad (where, typically, several bullets penetrate the heart &/or major blood vessels), there is measurable activity in the brain for some minutes after the heart stops.
Furthermore, there are actually two brains in our skulls. They die at different rates, when the oxygen fails. The so-called higher brain fails first, when oxygen starved. This part of the brain is associated with consciousness, rational thinking, language, etc. The more primitive brain, or brain stem, dies some seconds or minutes later. This brain regulates autonomous functions (heart beat, breathing, digestion, etc.).
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2026/09/two-separate-brains.html
Moreover, it is possible for one brain to die and the other to live on indefinitely. This actually happened within living memory of some of us here. The Case of Mrs. Schiavo made headlines and caused quite a legal fracas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo_case
She suffered a catastrophic heart failure which, had she not been re-animated, would have led to her death within minutes. However, most unfortunately, rescuers got to her in the critical period between when the higher brain failed but the lower brain had not yet failed, and kept her heart beating with machinery, in a state similar to the horror story by E.A. Poe, "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar." In other words, her body was frozen in articulo mortis literally for years.
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@moonbus saidThings like an IV taking too long, probably from dehydration. The curtains not being pulled open for people to watch, anything out of the exact steps no matter the reason or how small are added in to these totals not every time like what just happened. You would have to look at each case and how far back it goes.
I agree, it's a horror-show. This probably constitutes some sort of cruelty, though, given the failure rate of executions in the USA, not unusual.
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@vivify saidYou are more logical than most of the other liberals here that support any criminal no matter what the reason. The interesting thing I found is that all states blue or red don’t put a woman to death if she is pregnant at any stage, this doesn’t follow liberal logic in other areas of discussion.
No disagreement from me.
@moonbus saidSo this must be the logic behind auto-erotic asphyxiation.
It is her professional opinion that the two methods of execution mentioned above cause such immediate and catastrophic trauma to the entire organism, that a person so affected probably experiences an intense blast of simultaneous stimulation on all sensory input channels of such intensity that it is not processable consciously
@mike69 saidExecution tends to be a visceral issue; don't expect a whole lot of logic here.
You are more logical than most of the other liberals here that support any criminal no matter what the reason. The interesting thing I found is that all states blue or red don’t put a woman to death if she is pregnant at any stage, this doesn’t follow liberal logic in other areas of discussion.
A pregnant woman is not charged two bus fares when she gets on board, which is logical. One expects the fetus to get off the bus when the woman does. In the case of a condemned pregnant woman, one wants to bring the pregnancy to term, before carrying out the sentence, since a fetus is, by definition, innocent of any possible crime. One wants to give a fetus every chance to 'get off the bus' when the condemned woman doesn't.
@moonbus saidSo was the crime she committed and much more, you can be forgiven but the consequences still happen and she put herself in that position. Problems do happen and need to be figured out, there are many ways to die.
Execution tends to be a visceral issue; don't expect a whole lot of logic here.
A pregnant woman is not charged two bus fares when she gets on board, which is logical. One expects the fetus to get off the bus when the woman does. In the case of a condemned pregnant woman, one wants to bring the pregnancy to term, before carrying out the sentence, since a fetus is, by defin ...[text shortened]... crime. One wants to give a fetus every chance to 'get off the bus' when the condemned woman doesn't.
The last logic doesn’t fit the point I was making on the abortion issue, isn’t it just a clump of cells?