Which Machine Is Has A More Humane Method Of Execution?
The Guillotine
Side Score: 22
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The Electric Chair
Side Score: 21
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The electric chair is just for the entertainment those who are inflicting the pain. The guillotine is quick, easy to use and there is a lot less screaming. The guillotine doesn't (admittedly) keep things in one piece, but realistically, who is actually going to care what happens to a dead body? Side: The Guillotine
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The guillotine rarely decapitated on the first try. However, its original goal was to make death quick. But it was also used for a public executions, a "performance"... The electric chair is most often used for torture. But when used for execution, the person is tortured until he dies. Therefore, I say the guillotine and the electric chair are equally inhumane. Side: The Guillotine
How can you say that the guillotine is inhumane and rarely decapitates on the first try? It's a heavy steel blade at a free fall towards a human neck, as long as the guillotine is in good shape( oiled, sharpened and clean)the blade will drop unhindered from a high hight. So in good conditions the guillotine would make a clean cut through or between vertebrates. In your defense the efficiency statistics during the French revolution and the aftermath of that probably don't look very good but that's probably due to poor maintenance between executions and not due to a flaw in the guillotines design. You have to keep in mind the massive amounts of "conspirators" that were executed during that time period and that their remains could get wedged and stuck in the mechanisms and the executioner wouldn't bother to properly prepare it for the next execution. Side: The Guillotine
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http://health.howstuffworks.com/ The above is a interesting article about how for a few seconds there is a possibility that you will still be alive after being beheaded, with extreme pain. Side: The Guillotine
Easy. Here's the definition of humane, just in case there's any confusion. 1. Having or showing compassion or benevolence. 2. Inflicting the minimum of pain. Definition #2 clearly fits with this side. Definition #1 is sort of taken care of by #2. With the guillotine there would be very little pain and it would be very quick. Obviously quicker than the chair. But there would be lots of blood which makes it barbaric and it's obviously more dramatic. So one could argue that it wouldn't give the subject dignity. But I'm of the opinion that pain trumps all in this situation. The main thing I'm worried about is fear. It would be quick and nearly painless yes but the fear during the seconds leading up to it might be worse than the pain. But one could say the same thing about the electric chair. Side: The Guillotine
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Humane? Obviously the guillotine because, like everyone already stated, one does not feel pain. Righteous? Electric chair. If a man has caused so much destruction in his life to deserve a death sentence, then he hates himself enough where a painless beheading could be desired. On the contrary, the electric chair lets him feel some redemption for the pain and destruction he caused others. Maybe not on a fully equal basis, but it's a start. Side: The Electric Chair
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