Lethal injection is “the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person for the express purpose of causing immediate death” (Wikipedia.org). Lethal injection falls under the category capital punishment and is often compared to euthanasia and suicide; they all are intentional deaths. Lethal injection consist of three drugs that are supposed to kill a person immediately without any pain or suffering; these three drugs include Barbiturate, Paralytic, and Potassium solution. Sodium thiopental or sometimes pentobarbital are used as the anesthetic, they are both short acts of barbiturate. Barbiturate is the first effecting drug that puts the inmate to sleep and gives them the inability to feel any pain. This drug immediately effects the body within the first 30 seconds and even quicker sometimes if you add more doses of the drug. The typical amount that is highly used is 0.35 grams and that amount alone will make you unconscious within the first 30 seconds. After the injection, 15% of it has already reached the brain along with other body parts within 5 to 25 minutes.

The next drug is called Paralytic and is often referred to as pancuronium bromine or pavulon, this drug blocks the acetylcholine from working, paralyzing the muscles and cause respiratory arrest. The acetylcholine functions in the brain and the body, “binding of acetylcholine to receptors on the end plate causes depolarization and contraction of the muscle fiber” (wikipedia.org). They use about 0.2 mg/kg of this drug and with that dosage it paralyzes the person for 4 to 8 hours but the consumer will be dead way before that. Potassium Chloride is the last drug used in lethal injection, it stops the heart from pumping. The proper amount they use for the lethal injection is 100mEq, it has to be given slowly because it takes a while before the other drug to get into the cells.

There are several issues with death by lethal injection and one of them is being uneducated/unfamiliar with lethal injection. When lethal injection first became a thing, many of them were not doing their homework; in the article it stated, “Department of Corrections personnel “did not conduct any independent or scientific or medical studies or consult any medical professionals concerning the drugs and dosage amounts to be injected into the condemned” (Galeopposingview). Knowing what you are doing is very important especially when dealing with something that is as dangerous and life threating as lethal injection. The executioners often overlook and/or ignore the inmate’s physical characteristics like “the body weight, age, and their past drug uses” (GaleOpposingView). Overlooking something is another issue we have and being that we are humans this mistake may happen often. Dealing with lethal injection you have to be very observant, cautious, and well aware of what you are doing; if not things can end very badly for the person who is taking in the injections. Injecting too little of the first drug can cause the inmate to regain consciousness when the last two drugs start to kick in. The second drug will make the inmate paralyzed but not invincible to the pain. The inmate will now have to sit and suffer; this is what makes lethal injection inhumane.

Leonidas Konaries is a doctor who was very concern about the usage of lethal injection. He and colleagues analyzed multiple cases in three different states (California, North Carolina, and Virginia) and later reported thiopental and potassium does not always do its job. In the article, it quoted “individuals undergoing execution have continued to breathe after the injection of thiopental, and their hearts have continued to beat following injection of potassium” (Konaries). Death by lethal injection is not the sanest way to die, in the book “Just Mercy” it briefly mentioned lethal injection and was looked at as inhumane, risky, and a cruel punishment.