Alabama, unless stopped by the courts, intends to strap Kenneth Eugene Smith to a gurney Thursday and use a gas mask to replace breathable air with nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen, in the nation’s first execution attempt with the method.
The Alabama attorney general’s office told federal appeals court judges last week that nitrogen hypoxia is “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.” But what exactly Smith, 58, will feel after the warden switches on the gas is unknown, some doctors and critics say.
“What effect the condemned person will feel from the nitrogen gas itself, no one knows,” Dr. Jeffrey Keller, president of the American College of Correctional Physicians, wrote in an email. “This has never been done before. It is an experimental procedure.”
Keller, who was not involved in developing the Alabama protocol, said the plan is to “eliminate all of the oxygen from the air” that Smith is breathing by replacing it with nitrogen.
Your video shows exactly how painless it is, and in fact how it can cause euphoria instead. Besides, this execution method is fundamentally different because it removes oxygen completely while maintaining normal pressure, causing unconsciousness to happen much faster with fewer physiological responses.
Obviously execution is heinous at its very core, but your criticisms don’t seem to line up with the scientific facts.
Only when he knows he’s not meant to die.
If he was told he was going to die he’d be crying at the moment he realised he was dying. Which as you can see from the first time he said “I don’t want to die” would be several minutes.
“Scientific facts” are studies. We’re just people on the internet giving opinions.
YOU are giving opinions, I am giving facts. Here are a few peer reviewed studies that support my statements:
Really, inert gas hypoxia is quite painless and fast, it’s a decent way to go. That being said, execution is barbaric practice we have no need of.
Well one of those is disputed by evidence directly. 5-10 seconds is clearly in a context irrelevant to the discussion.
But I’m glad you got a hit on your Google scholar search.
Care to read the papers too?
I don’t, you’re not displaying any reason at all.
I did read the papers and this process is extraordinarily similar to the process that is going to be used in the execution (immediate removal of all oxygen). Quote from the article:
This is exactly the context that is relevant to the discussion. Did you possibly have something else in mind?
That’s simply not how breathing works.
This is stating unconsciousness “within seconds”. How many.
120 is a normal range to pass out from complete oxygen deprivation… That’s also countable in minutes. It ranges from 30-180 seconds.
It’s slow.
Read the papers.
I highly doubt you know more than the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, who said:
Or the European Industrial Gases Association:
(They also said that fainting is “almost immediate” with oxygen concentrations below 6% by volume.)
You profess to know how breathing works, but I believe that we need to trust the experts whose job it is to research these things. I have linked ample research that supports my points and you have given nothing supporting yours. Either put up some evidence or leave it be.
Read the actual papers. You’re quoting the minimum time as the full range.
It’s up to 3 minutes.