• oatscoop@midwest.social
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    9 months ago

    There’s also the difference between “painless” and “easy to watch”. Lethal injection looks humane because they inject the person with a paralytic, so regardless of what happens it looks “peaceful”.

    One of the drugs sometimes used (succinylcholine chloride) is fucking terrifying, because it’s a paralytic with no anesthetic effect. Given alone a person under its effects is aware of what’s going on while paralyzed and unable to breath.

      • oatscoop@midwest.social
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        9 months ago

        Medically it’s generally used to intubate someone in an emergency if the patient is conscious, seizing, etc. If the patient is aware, it’s given in conjunction with something for sedation like a benzo.

        In an execution it’s given after a barbiturate for sedation , then followed with potassium chloride to stop the heart … assuming mistakes aren’t made, or something goes wrong.