I am neither for or against the death penalty. There are crimes that are so heinous that the only punishment is death. They call lethal injection humane. There are times that the person being put to death do suffer, for minutes. Some say they deserve to. But truly humane lethal injection would not use the 3 drug cocktail and use one drug. Fentanyl. Within seconds fentanyl shuts off your CNS. Fast, effective and humane.
Plus very cheap to purchase.
@MallyDaKatt Alfentanil or Carfentanil are more potent. But even with all three a huge dose won't necessarily kill. You need a high dose to anaesthesatise and then a continued high dose to then depress respiratory function.
@rych
True. Still, it is far more humane than the 3 drug cocktail. The main cause of all the OD's is heroin cut with fentanyl. People load their syringes with what they think is the usual relatively low grade heroin, start shooting up and die with the syringes still in their arms. I am a semi recovered opiate addict. Came close to OD'ing a few times. Lucky I suppose.
@rych
There is analogue
Alpha-methylfentanyl which is supposedly 5000 times more potent than morphine. And much more potent than fentanyl. But I agree, there really no humane way of performing state sponsored murder. The death penalty has not cut down violent crime.
@MallyDaKatt TBF I don't think there is a perfect humane way of performing this action, I'm not convinced an option overdose could be classed as peaceful 100% of the time. Although you could argue that Dignitas probably have it close.