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Electric chair, gas chambers, and lethal injection, usually when we hear these words we tend to say, “Oh they deserve it.” What is bad enough to deserve death? Are there certain crimes that do and then some that do not? Almost every culture through out history has relied on capital punishment and justified it as necessary to maintain order. The only thing that has changed over time are the crimes deemed punishable and the methods used to carry out the punishment. In ancient Persia, one method of execution involved being eaten alive by insects and vermin. Other methods included chopping of limbs, boiling in oil, burning at the stake and pressings. Methods of execution have varied from crucifixion in the middle-ages to electrocution and lethal injection in the modern era. Electrocution abolishes the functions of the brain, heart, and nerves by overwhelming the bioelectrical basis of the metabolism, and lethal injection uses the drugs, Thiopental Sodium and potassium chloride which paralyze the heart. However less barbaric than in ancient times some of the methods used to kill nowadays, are often more brutal than those used by the criminal.
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