You are in a small windowless room, lying on a pale turquoise gurney. On each side of the gurney there is a metal table against the wall, and in one of them there are scissors, a small red beaker and a gauze strip. Neatness of the room is strangely disturbing and doesn’t release comfort. There is also a clock just above the gurney ticking to announce something terrible.
You can see everything because in front of you
there is a mirror. And you can imagine that behind must be your execution
witnesses, some of your family and possibly several families of your victims.
Prison officials tie you to the gurney straps
and clean your arms with alcohol before insert an intravenous cannula in each
(the one main and the other for security, if the first fails). You can see
yourself helpless in the mirror. You're a murderer but you are also afraid,
something that is part of our deepest and most primitive animal nature,
probably the same that led you to do what you did.
 |
| Execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison in California. |
There are many
definitions that have been given about fear and all of them could be valid for
what concerns us here. But as it is necessary to choose one, we have decided
this: "Fear is a disturbance of mood due to a risk or harm, real or
imagined that threatens our physical or moral integrity." What is certain
is that it is one of the fundamental reactions of living organisms and
therefore is a mainstay in the social organization of individual. Probably the
history of civilization and progress could be written in terms of domain of
fear.
The difference
is that, in this case, you cannot get away, you cannot fight, you cannot fend.
Your digestion, if you afforded a great dinner last night, stops or delays.
Your energy reserves go into the bloodstream, increasing levels of adrenaline,
glucose from your liver and red blood cells that come from your spleen. Your
blood flows from the viscera to the muscles, which tighten. Your blood pressure
raises, your heartbeat increases, your breathing increases. At the same time,
your blood coagulates faster, your colon and your bladder relax and your
pupils dilate.
Anesthesia. First, some type of
anesthetic starts to pump, usually sodium pentothal or pentobarbital. The
intention is to leave you unconscious in order to reduce your pain. Your
breathing also decreases significantly. Within seconds, you start to feel tired
and heavy and start to doze.
 |
| Sodium pentothal. |
Paralysis. Once you're unconscious, pancuronium bromide starts
to enter into your bloodstream. As it is a neuromuscular blocker, it prevents
the nerve messenger, acetylcholine, reaches the muscles, paralyzing them. It may
cause respiratory failure, which could lead to death by asphyxia if the third
compound is not administered.
 |
| Pancuronium bromide. |
Heart attack. And then, potassium
chloride (KCl), another saline solution, affects electrical signal of your
heart, gradually causing it to stop. At all times you are connected to a heart
monitor whereby officials will know when you ..............
SOURCES
- http://www.batanga.com/curiosidades/4357/inyeccion-letal...
- http://curiosidades-cientificas-epi.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/neuroq...
- http://www.expower.es/humos-gases-combustion.htm
- http://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/07/science/the-biology-of-fear...
- Sobrevivir. La gran lección del reino animal. VB Dröscher. Ed Planeta, 1982.
This post is part of Radical Barbatilo special "The Dark Side of Chemistry" and participates in the LII Spanish Carnival of Chemistry hosted in the blog El Celuloide de Avogadro.
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