I am an anesthesiologist. This is right up my alley, so to speak. However, I am prohibited by the charter in my board certification from being involved in capital punishment. Them's the rules. If I do it, I lose my certification.
Having said that, yes, I think the drugs used and the protocols written are, at the very least, inadequate and, at the worst, barbaric. In order to do this properly, we could very easily be involved in protocols that would be at the same time humane and would also do the job quickly and painlessly.
This has nothing to do with my personal beliefs on the death penalty. That is for society to decide. Going back to a sociology class I took as an undergrad, the key principles in an effective system of punishment, with regards to its effects on deterrence, it must meet three principles: celerity, severity, and certainty. With botched executions, you remove two of those secondary to the fallout in the court of public opinion.
Having said that, there is nothing that prevents me from saying how I would do it if I were allowed to be involved. This is how you accomplish the goals:
(1) You start two IVs and make sure that both are free-flowing prior to commencement of the procedure.
(2) You give a large dose of an amnestic agent, like midazolam, on the order of 2mg/kg.
(3) Next, you push through the primary IV a massive dose of an induction agent, like propofol or etomidate, to ensure that you've rendered the person completely unconscious.
(4) After this, you give a massive dose of a muscle paralytic, like rocuronium, at 10 times the normal dose to commence surgery.
(5) Lastly, you rapidly push 400 meq of potassium chloride in the IV.
Total cost? Around $100. This would end the person's life - with absolutely no possibility of recollection of what happened - in less than 2 minutes with plenty of redundancy should one of those steps fail. And, it would be humane. The protocols I've seen are woefully inadequate, and I'm not sure why no one "in the know" has suggested fixing them, other than for the reasons I describe.
~Dr. Imago
Having said that, yes, I think the drugs used and the protocols written are, at the very least, inadequate and, at the worst, barbaric. In order to do this properly, we could very easily be involved in protocols that would be at the same time humane and would also do the job quickly and painlessly.
This has nothing to do with my personal beliefs on the death penalty. That is for society to decide. Going back to a sociology class I took as an undergrad, the key principles in an effective system of punishment, with regards to its effects on deterrence, it must meet three principles: celerity, severity, and certainty. With botched executions, you remove two of those secondary to the fallout in the court of public opinion.
Having said that, there is nothing that prevents me from saying how I would do it if I were allowed to be involved. This is how you accomplish the goals:
(1) You start two IVs and make sure that both are free-flowing prior to commencement of the procedure.
(2) You give a large dose of an amnestic agent, like midazolam, on the order of 2mg/kg.
(3) Next, you push through the primary IV a massive dose of an induction agent, like propofol or etomidate, to ensure that you've rendered the person completely unconscious.
(4) After this, you give a massive dose of a muscle paralytic, like rocuronium, at 10 times the normal dose to commence surgery.
(5) Lastly, you rapidly push 400 meq of potassium chloride in the IV.
Total cost? Around $100. This would end the person's life - with absolutely no possibility of recollection of what happened - in less than 2 minutes with plenty of redundancy should one of those steps fail. And, it would be humane. The protocols I've seen are woefully inadequate, and I'm not sure why no one "in the know" has suggested fixing them, other than for the reasons I describe.
~Dr. Imago
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