The price of life

doi:10.1136/bmj.39378.691296.3A

BMJ 2007;335:938 (3 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39378.691296.3A

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The price of life

Brendan D Kelly, consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer in psychiatry¹, Sharon R Foley, research registrar²

¹ Department of Adult Psychiatry, University College Dublin, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, ² DETECT Service, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland

brendankelly35@gmail.com

sharonrachelfoley@gmail.com

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

On 31 January 2006 Jaime Elizalde Junior, a 34 year old Hispanicman, was executed by lethal injection in Texas. Elizalde, awelder, had been convicted of killing two men in Houston inthe mid-1990s. He spent eight years on death row before beinggiven an injection of thiopental sodium (to sedate him), pancuroniumbromide (to collapse his lungs and diaphragm), and potassiumchloride (to stop his heart beating). The injection cost $86.08(£42; ${euro}$ 60).

In 2005 at least 2148 people were executed and another 5186were sentenced to death in various countries around the world.Four countries were responsible for 94% of executions: China,Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. A variety of methodswere used, including hanging, firing squad, beheading, and lethalinjection. Those put to death included adults, children, andindividuals with intellectual disabilities. The prevalence ofpsychological distress and mental illness is high among prisoners. . . [Full text of this article]

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Going to extremes: Tony Delamothe
BMJ 2007 335: 0. [Extract] [Full Text]

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Against capital punishment, or just against the USA?: Richard Watson
bmj.com, 5 Nov 2007 [Full text]
What about the victims ?: Alexander SD Spiers
bmj.com, 5 Nov 2007 [Full text]
The unvarnished truth?: Caroline Mawer
bmj.com, 6 Nov 2007 [Full text]
Anti-United States: James Currie
bmj.com, 8 Nov 2007 [Full text]
UN ought to move against capital punishment: AK Al-Sheikhli
bmj.com, 8 Nov 2007 [Full text]
Re: Anti-United States: Richard Watson
bmj.com, 10 Nov 2007 [Full text]
The death penalty and the inexorable rise in anti-Americanism: Mark Struthers
bmj.com, 12 Nov 2007 [Full text]