How Painless is the Death Penalty?

                Many states are facing a new issue in regards to the death penalty. The lethal injections drug(s) many use are becoming near or exceeding their expiration date. This poses the question of the next step for executions. States have met this issue because the drug(s) that many uses come from countries that do not have the death penalty. 

Ohio uses pentobarbital to conduct executions, which is from Europe. Europe discovered what many US countries are using this drug for and would no longer supply it to the states because they do not support the death penalty. Since this has occurred, states are looking for other alternatives to lethal injection or a new drug. Ohio is in this predicament as well, looking for the next step as executions creep closer.

States have now gone as far as using drugs to execute that have not been tested yet, so we do not know if they are actually painless. In my opinion this is unacceptable because we do not know the effect this has on those we execute and infringes on their right against cruel and unusual punishment. More states have gone into using this technique despite the controversy.

I believe that we should not use untested methods to execute human beings. We do not know how this reacts with people because it is has not had proper testing to insure that it is not harmful and painful. There is a need to test medicine before using it for executions or it goes against peoples fundamental rights. This should put forth an argument against the death penalty because it is losing support from other countries (as they have moved past it). It is becoming increasing difficult to kill someone in the government and know they have resorted to using untested drugs for murder. I do not agree with this at all; in fact I think it is probably one of the most terrible things we could be doing to a person. After all, they are people the government is condemning to death, they do still feel pain. Using untested or expired drugs is not how we should be conducting the death penalty because we are violating rights. The only way to complete the death penalty in a humane way is to insure that the condemned are not suffering to death. This should be a simple thing and in my opinion something we should uphold as greatly important.