X-Message-Number: 5656 From: (David L Evens) Newsgroups: sci.cryonics Subject: Re: Death penalty Date: 22 Jan 1996 14:29:16 GMT Message-ID: <4e06vs$> References: <> <> wrote: : Then there's the *manner* of execution. Where the electric : chair is used, I would expect massive damage to brain tissue. Definitely, as the actual mechanism of death in the electric chair is not electrocution (in which natural electrical impulse patterns, particularly those involved in heart beat ar disrupted and set into useless patterns), but COOKING. : Hanging involves compromise of blood vessels to the head, and : sudden ischema to the brain. Actually, the ischema isn't so much from compression of blood vesels, but because the high-level break in the neck compromises the autonomic nervous system and stops the heart and lungs very quickly (although in Canada there have been cases where a person took over half an hour to actually reach clinical death). : I don't know how death comes about : in the gas chamber. What kind of damage is faced there? Would it : be espically detrimental to suspension? Gas chambers normally use cyanide. Nasty stuff, and the concentrations are so high that it takes a full day to clear the chamber well enough for the body to be removed. The cyanide itself presents a very large problem for any potential reanimation, as it is extremely difficult to remove in any event, and the very long period of high-temperature ischema probably ensures any information in the brain being destroyed. : The damage that could come : from head wounds where firing squads are used is easily imagined. : I don't know how lethal injection kills, but it would seem, offhand, : to be the most benign from a suspension standpoint. Lethal injection is normally an overdose of barbituates, exactly the same method used to put animals 'to sleep.' As barbituates are (from what I've read) used to help reduce anticipated neurological damage from ishema by slowing down metabolism, this is definitely the most benign form, as it actually does part of the suspension process. : (If they leave : the IV's in place, so much the better.) Even if the condemned opted : for neurosuspension, we may still be grateful that the guillotine : and other forms of beheading are out of favor in western countries.... Beheading the person while still alive would present a terrible problem for suspension, as there wouldn't be any feasible way to do perfusion afterwards. I am reminded of a bad movie called 'Demolition Man' which some of you may recall. The ultimate punishment in the society of the film was being placed in cryonic suspension, which would last until the government had a use for you, specifically. --------------------------+------------------------------------------------ Ring around the neutron, | "OK, so he's not terribly fearsome. A pocket full of positrons,| But he certainly took us by surprise!" A fission, a fusion, +----------------------------------------------- We all fall down! | "Was anybody in the Maqui working for me?" ---------------------------+----------------------------------------------- "I'd cut down ever Law in England to get at the Devil!" "And what man could stand up in the wind that would blow once you'd cut down all the laws?" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- e-mail will be posted as I see fit. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5656