While the firing squad method seems to be the coolest classic method to kill someone, the firing
squad method can only be used in Utah. The lethal injection method is not just one injection. It is
three. The first one is an anesthetic. This is to ensure that the inmate will not feel any pain. The
other two injections are supposed to come after it, but there is some speculation on this. Some
researchers say that “it is highly probable that many prisoners are not in fact anaesthetized when
the pain inducing drugs are injected into their systems” (Harrison and Melville, 167, 2007). If
this is in fact true, then it is in direct violation of the eighth amendment which outlawed cruel
and unusual punishment.
The real cruelty of the lethal injection
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Science says that the drug is not enough to make the execution painless and yet the court says
that it is perfectly acceptable because the pain will be tolerable. While the person who is being
executed has done terrible things, that does not mean that they have to die a painful death. If the
government allows the prisoners to die in pain then they have stooped to their level. The
government is supposed to be fair and just. It does not matter who the person receiving the
execution is, the execution is supposed to be done in a way that is humane.
One cannot talk about the ethics in the death penalty without mentioning the religious
undertone. There is an ethical issue regarding the death penalty. Religion seems to play an
important part in ethics, but religion often has a mixed message. In the bible, there is an irony
that can be found, God threatens any potential executioner who was to kill Cane, with
punishment sevenfold and also instructs Moses to kill sinners. (Kania, 1999). It seems that the
old testament is strict when it comes to justice while the new one centers more on