Horizon (1964–…): Season 44, Episode 3 - How to Kill a Human Being - full transcript

This programme contains scenes which
some viewers may find disturbing.

Former Conservative
MP Michael Portillo

is on a mission to investigate
the science of killing.

It's a hell of a start, God!

Oh, my God!

He wants to find a method
that is unquestionably humane,

and to do so he will delve into
one of the darkest areas of science.

It's really tantamount
to torture in my view.

His aim is to try to understand what
it feels like to die by execution.

Probably a bit like having the
combined pain of a heart attack

and asphyxiation at the same time.



My basic attitude is, "So they
suffer a little pain, who cares?"

In his quest, Michael will undergo
a set of unique experiments.

Oh, my head is quite heavy.

Now my peripheral is
going, I'm going grey.

He will push his body
to the brink of death.

Put up the switches.
Put up the switches.

Put up the switches or you will die.

All because of one
fundamental belief.

If the state kills people,

we want to do it as humanely as
possible. I think most people agree.

55 countries in the world use
execution as the ultimate punishment.

The killing of prisoners has long
been the cause of great controversy.

As a politician, Michael Portillo
debated the issue time and again.

I have a pretty chequered
history on the death penalty.



When I went into politics in the '80s,
I voted in favour of the death penalty,

and then in the '90s I voted
against it. And it wasn't really

a fundamental change about the issue.

It was just that at that time there
were a lot of miscarriages of justice,

and I thought, "You can't be killing
people if you're not certain whether

"they did it or not."

The problem's not just about whether
the death penalty is right or wrong.

It's also about how it's carried out.

Recently, firing squads have been deemed
unreliable by the Vietnamese government.

A botched hanging in Iraq

led to Saddam Hussein's
half-brother being decapitated.

There's great controversy about
whether the methods that are used

are humane, whether they
cause pain or not, and I think,

"How difficult can it be at the
beginning of the 21st century

"for science to come up with a way
of killing people that is humane?"

And so that's what I'm looking into,
a humane way of executing people.

Michael is heading to America,

where its primary method of
execution is also in crisis.

All lethal injections in the state
of Florida, all death penalty cases

put on hold by the governor.

California has postponed
executions by lethal injection.

The Supreme Court takes up the
controversy over lethal injection,

which some say can
cause excruciating pain.

Michael wants to find out
if the lethal injection

is scientifically sound or torture
disguised as a medical procedure.

Good morning. Yes, sir.

My name is Michael Portillo,
I've come to see Warden Cain.

He's come to Angola Penitentiary

in Louisiana, the largest
maximum-security prison in the US.

The vast majority of prisoners at Angola
are violent offenders serving life sentences.

Over 70% will die here.

On the left, this
is a visiting room...

Warden Bill Cain has overseen the
execution of six people at Angola

and is well versed in the process.

Here we are... This is the
actual chamber, right here.

Warden, you... you
do feel like a chill

going down your spine, don't you?

You really do, especially for the
first time, but I'm going to be...

Do you still get that feeling?
No, I don't get it any more, but...

You've had it, though, right?
I have. OK, so what we have...

These are intravenous lines, so
this is going to go in his left arm,

and then you have one that's
going to go in the right arm.

And the reason that I want
two is because the worst thing

would be to lose the vein,
or the IV not work after

you're in the process, and then you
have a real mess here on your hands.

So with two, you have
two sets of drugs,

and then if one were to
fail, you have the other.

Warden Cain believes he's
compassionate to the prisoners

in his efforts to ensure
a smooth execution,

but state regulations means that the procedure
is carried out by technicians rather than doctors.

Then I'm going to open the door and
the EMTs are going to come in here.

What are they? Emergency
medical technicians.

We don't use doctors or nurses
because of the Hippocratic oath.

That being the oath that any
doctor gives to preserve life.

Yeah, the doctors give an oath
to do no harm. To do no harm.

And so therefore, we
don't ask them to do it.

Coroner and eyewitness reports
from across America suggest that

this widespread lack of expertise
can result in painful deaths.

December 13th 2006, Angel Diaz.

After the first injection was
given, Mr Diaz continued to move

and was squinting and grimacing
as he tried to mouth words.

The medical examiner stated that
the needle had gone through Mr Diaz's

vein and out the other side, so the
deadly chemicals were injected into

soft tissue rather than the vein.

Michael is meeting Dr Jay Chapman,

the man who actually invented
the lethal injection procedure.

He believes some ill-trained
technicians are undermining

the credibility of its invention.

As I once characterised it,

one never imagined that idiots
would be doing this procedure.

Who are the idiots? Well,
people that, for instance,

have inserted an intravenous needle toward
the hand rather than toward the body.

Nobody would ever inject a needle
that way but... But somebody did?

I understood that in one execution,
this is exactly what happened.

If the protocol is carried out
as it should be, there absolutely

will be no sensation of pain.

Dr Chapman's lethal injection was adapted
from a standard surgical procedure.

It uses three drugs.

The first of these was an
extremely commonly used drug

to induce unconsciousness for
the introduction of anaesthesia.

The second drug which was specified
was a muscular paralytic agent.

This is used in surgery so that

muscles do not react as the knife
is used or the procedure is done.

And the third drug
induces cardiac arrest.

Given that you believe that sometimes
the process is carried out by

what you call idiots, could it
then cause pain to the prisoner?

Yes, it could, but
my basic attitude is,

"So they suffer a
little pain, who cares?"

It's not... It's not horrific pain,

it's not excruciating pain
in my opinion, so who cares?

But not everyone agrees
with Dr Chapman's assessment,

particularly because a lack of expertise
may not be the only source of pain.

In fact, a much bigger controversy
centres on the second drug

in the cocktail, the paralysing
agent pancuronium bromide.

When was your operation?
January 24th...

Carol Weihrer knows better than
anyone what this drug feels like.

During a routine eye operation,
she suddenly became fully conscious

while the paralytic was
injected into her body.

I was given the
short-acting anaesthesia,

then became completely aware,

and I received two separate
doses of the second drug,

the pancuronium bromide,

which feels like ignited jet
fuel going through your body.

You feel like you're absolutely
on fire, it is...excruciating.

You're trapped in a dead body, you
can't move, you can't do anything.

Carol has been a key witness in 15
court cases against the lethal injection.

She believes most
executed inmates go through

the same experience as she did.

The anaesthetic they're using is the
short-acting, five-minute version.

A lethal injection takes between
ten and 12 minutes on a good day,

and I feel very seriously that
most of those inmates may be put out

for a couple of minutes, and then
they're paralysed and conscious

and feeling that pancuronium
bromide go through their system,

and if they do, they're on
fire and they can't breathe,

and they die from suffocation
before their heart is ever stopped.

Carol gave a very moving testimony about
the pain she suffered from pancuronium,

the prisoners suffer that.

It's a possibility which the
American courts take seriously, so...

the lethal injection...is questioned.

So it can't be the
perfect killing method.

To find a more humane device,
Michael will investigate the science

behind other methods of execution
still used in the US today -

the gas chamber, hanging
and the electric chair.

Could one of the alternatives be

a better solution than
the lethal injection?

Hanging is carried out in Iran,
Japan, Jordan, Pakistan, Singapore

and is still available
in two states in America.

Michael has come to a
crash-test lab in Bedfordshire

to meet professor of medical
engineering Len Nokes,

an expert in the
mechanics of hanging.

Just walk over here, Michael.

I thought you'd find this
interesting, recognise the shirt?

It's my shirt, you've
made him look like me.

I would say he's roughly your weight,

and what we'd like to do is hang him.

So would you mind putting
the noose round your own neck?

I don't have much experience
of this, I'm afraid.

Well, just slot it on
top first and...yeah.

Short-drop hanging was the
standard form of execution

up until the late 19th century.

Prisoners were dropped
from a very short height

and were slowly strangled to death.

But then the British developed a
method designed to be more humane.

I'm going to show you the science, or
supposed science, behind British hanging.

They constructed a table
about 1886, and this is it.

Now, if we were going to hang
you, Michael, using this table,

I need to know what your weight is.

About 200 pounds.

200, easy, 200 pounds, let's go
for 196 pounds. That's very kind.

Look across, and we have to now
drop you through a height of 6'5".

The experiment is looking to deliver
an instantaneous and humane death

by completing the hangman's fracture.

The classic hangman's fracture happens
between the second and third cervical vertebra.

The idea is that you fracture that
joint, and you pull them all apart,

and by disrupting
the joint like that,

you cause damage to the
spinal cord and the brain stem.

Very important, because
if the brain stem

is damaged in any way, it controls
your heartbeat and your breathing.

Even if it doesn't snap the spinal
cord, it just tugs it violently,

there's a good chance that that
will stop your heart? Correct.

With the aid of hi-tech slow-motion
cameras, Professor Nokes can now

analyse the effects of the drop on
the body and conclude whether or not

British hanging is indeed humane.

Phil?

Three, two, one, release.

Wow! That's a lot of energy.

That's a lot of energy.

The body comes down a long, long way.

Oh, my goodness... It nearly takes
the head off there, doesn't it?

It lifts this head all the way...

That's a perfect illustration.

I would be highly surprised if
you didn't get the necessary damage

to the cervical cord and the brain
stem, given what I've just seen.

So we've found a humane way
of killing people? Well...

If we could do that 100% of
the time, the answer to that

would be yes, but that
doesn't always happen,

because it depends on the
anatomy of the individual. Right.

You and I have different neck sizes.

We have different muscle bulk.

We may weigh the same, but our
anatomy is totally different.

But there is one way to
guarantee immediate death,

and that's to extend the rope length.

Professor Nokes's team has
adjusted the dummy's metal neck

to demonstrate the effect this
would have on the human spine.

I've added this amount
of drop, that's all.

Three, two, one, release.

Oh, God! Oh!

That is foul.

Dear, oh dear... And that's with just
a couple of feet more on the drop height.

I think in slow motion, it'll
even be more spectacular.

Wow.

It just takes the head off so...

It's just completing the
fracture of the vertebra.

It rips everything apart.

This is what happened to Saddam Hussein's
brother, presumably? I believe so.

Hanging is so dependent

on individual physiology that there
have been cases of decapitation

even with the use
of the British table.

To complicate matters further,

different countries use different
tables to calculate the rope's length.

I just want to show
you the differences

between the American
and the British tables.

Right, so these are people of the
same weight, and you're saying that

the Americans would hang
him... what, two feet longer?

That's right.

We've already seen the difference

that two foot can make to the drop
height and the consequences. Yeah.

Which one of these
is the correct one?

You tell me.

I can't, and I'm the scientist.

There is an extreme lack of
science in these two tables.

You're telling me that
even in the 21st century,

with all our scientific knowledge,
we couldn't devise a foolproof table.

There's too many variables,

too many, and I just don't think we
could ever produce a perfect table.

Methods of execution have always mirrored
the scientific advances of the age.

At the end of the 19th century,

a revolutionary
technological development

was vital to the creation of
the iconic symbol of execution.

Thomas Edison, the
father of electricity,

was locked in a bitter battle
with rival George Westinghouse

for control of the emerging
electrical utility industry.

Edison wanted to show the
world that his rival's system,

based on an alternating current,
was a danger to the public.

And to prove it, he
electrocuted a circus elephant.

Edison's scheming went further.

He got his researchers to develop an
electric chair using Westinghouse's

AC system and recommended it
to be used to kill criminals,

the electric chair was born.

Today it's still available
in ten American states

and was last used as
recently as September 2007.

Despite its ongoing use, there
is no clear scientific study

on the electrocution
effects on the prisoner.

This may be a little messy, so
if you want to put on these...

So Michael is meeting
high-voltage specialist Nick Field

to reproduce the conditions seen
during an electric-chair execution.

Forensic pathologist Peter Vanezis
is an expert in electrical injuries

and will analyse the effect
it produces on the body.

So you've seen a lot of
dead bodies in your time.

I'm afraid so, yes. Everything
from ordinary coroner's cases

to criminal events,
deaths in custody.

Yes. All that kind of stuff.

Just give me a hand? Sure.

Nick is using the next best thing to the
human body to carry out the experiment.

Hell's teeth!

A pig is actually the closest
in nature to human physiology.

This is about the same weight as
a lightish man or a typical woman

and an excellent test
subject in most ways.

What is the current that you apply in
an electric chair, an electrocution?

In this case, the
shock is 2,450 volts.

2,000...? 450.

God... I mean, a plug
at home is what, 240?

Yes, it's approximately
ten times. Good Lord above.

In a typical electric chair,
you're connected in three places.

Your head and two clamps around
either your ankles or your calves.

This is a saturated salt solution,
and these are natural sponges.

Why brine?

Brine is much more
conductive than pure water.

And this is what the
prisoner would feel.

He would feel a hat being stuffed
on his head full of wet sponges.

Yes.

Just as in a real electrocution,

the subject will receive an
electric shock for 15 seconds.

LOUD FIZZING

Hell of a lot of
flaming here at the feet.

It must be all the fat around the...

Nothing at the head yet.

Not yet, no.

Hell of a smell of burning
now, a lot of smoke.

So...he'd be dead by now.

Maybe he'd be dead. We're not
sure yet, to be honest with you.

Some people have survived longer.

I mean, that's the whole
point of giving them

more than two or
three shocks sometimes.

But doesn't 2,400 volts
just stop your heart?

Well, the problem is the effect
on the heart can vary quite a bit.

You can get what's called
ventricular fibrillation,

which is the muscle just going into

a very fast spasm, so it may not
affect your heart straight away.

It would have other effects on the
body such as partial asphyxiation.

The point is, if it acts on
the muscles and causes spasms,

you won't be able to open and
close your chest to breathe.

It's standard practice to shock the
prisoner several times to ensure death.

In 1990, Jesse Tafero from
Florida had to be given three jolts

before he stopped breathing.

Rather than using a natural sponge,

the executioners bought a
synthetic one at the local store,

and it proved to be
much less conductive.

In this part of the experiment,
Nick has adjusted the sponges

to more accurately reflect what
happened in Tafero's execution.

Oh, even more crackling...

Oh, my...! That is dreadful.

That is dreadful! That is dreadful.

That is appalling. Can you see all
the fat running down the pig's face?

Oh, that's foul.

There's the sponge underneath.

Oh, a terrible burning
on the snout, Professor.

Yes, you've got a burn there
where the rim of the cap was,

and you've also got a burn at the
back between the ears and including

the ears as well, and that's
very similar to the sort of burn

that you get in a real execution.

So what's happened? Oh, my
God, it's gone straight through.

It has, it's basically
gone down to the bone.

It almost amputated that
part of the hoof, really.

Would you imagine that this would be,

in the American terminology,
a cruel and unusual punishment?

I think it absolutely is,
and it's really tantamount

to torture in my view. Really? Yep.

Michael's obtained a report
that shows rare photographs

of an inmate put to death
by the electric chair.

After Davis's airflow had been
blocked by the mouth strap,

the face mask and his own blood,

Davis made several sounds
under the face mask,

which was described variously
as muffled screams or yells.

The body was mutilated by
burns on the head, face and leg,

and he was covered in blood because
blood was pouring out of his nose.

There's no way this is a
perfect way of killing people.

It's potentially very painful

and extremely gory
for the witnesses, too.

There is one method of execution
that could be much less painful

than the electric chair, but
only if the prisoner remains calm

and co-operates in their death.

The use of cyanide
gas as a killing agent

was pioneered on the battlefield
during the First World War.

It was then used by the Nazis as
part of their genocide programme.

It remains available in
five states in America.

Sometimes before executions,

the gas chamber is tested
using an animal subject.

Acid is placed under the chair.

And at the assigned moment, the executioner
drops cyanide pellets into the acid,

releasing hydrogen cyanide gas.

The subject dies by asphyxiation.

Michael is meeting biochemistry
professor Christopher Cooper

to understand what
happens to the body

in a hydrogen cyanide gas chamber.

Our cells require
oxygen to make energy,

and each cell has a
place where the oxygen

converts and reacts with the food
we eat to make energy for the cell.

Cyanide interferes
directly with this process.

It binds to exactly the same
place where oxygen binds,

so the heart's pumping
and lungs are working,

oxygen's getting around, none
of the cells can use the oxygen.

Would you be in pain
during that period?

It's probably a bit like having the
combined pain from a heart attack,

brain seizures and
asphyxiation at the same time.

Would there be a way of
speeding the process up?

One of the complications
is you ask the prisoner

to co-operate in their own
death, such that if they breathe

calmly and deeply at the beginning
and get as much hydrogen cyanide gas

into their brain as possible,

they get unconscious as quickly
as possible and suffer less pain.

Michael wants to find out if it
really is possible for prisoners

to remain calm and
co-operative in the gas chamber,

so that their moment of
death is relatively painless.

What we've got is your
personal protective equipment,

which we'll size and fit to you now.

Together with a group of volunteers
he will be exposed to a non-lethal

but highly noxious gas which
provokes a number of similar

bodily reactions to cyanide,
its lethal counterpart.

Don the respirator,

chin in first. Make sure that the
harness is central on the crown.

CS gas is used by the military
to simulate chemical attacks,

and, like cyanide, it provokes a
terrible irritation to the skin,

eyes and lungs, as well as
gasping, confusion and vomiting.

To establish that the gas chamber
can be reasonably painless,

all Michael has to do is breathe
in the noxious gas calmly and deeply

and say his full name
and date of birth.

Is everybody OK? OK!

We're now going to
be exposed to the CS.

What I want you to do is remain calm,

keep your breathing going as much
as possible and keep your eyes open.

Undo the zip of your suit.

Pull back the hood.

One, two, three!

Keep your eyes open.
OK, state your name.

COUGHING, CONFUSED MUMBLING

State your name and date of birth.

State your name and date of birth.

State your name and date
of birth. INAUDIBLE RESPONSE

State your name and date of
birth. Declan Swan, 28th...

State your name and date of
birth. Michael Portillo, May...'53.

OK, follow the man one behind
the other. Keep going. Keep going.

Follow the tape.

Face the opposite direction, so you
get the wind coming into your face.

The will to learn the
lesson. Deep breaths!

It was completely...horrible.

Stinging.

I couldn't keep my eyes
open for a moment, oh...

Eyes are absolutely...messed up.

I found it very difficult to speak,

I couldn't get my whole
date of birth out even.

It was great to get out of there.

Look at me.

Thank you.

Oh!

I think this experiment...
shows that it is pretty unlikely

that someone who is asked to breathe
in...a killer gas is going to do so

calmly, cos the gas I had
here was not a killer gas,

but it was an irritant,

and of course, you know,
all my intentions of...

breathing in calmly just went
straight out of the window,

I just couldn't do it at all.

Michael has now explored all
the key methods of execution

still in use in the western world.

So where does that leave the search?

I've been thinking about the criteria

for a perfect killing device
based on what I've seen so far.

First of all, it mustn't require
any medical expertise, because

doctors don't want to be involved
because of their Hippocratic oath.

That rules out the lethal injection,

or, for that matter, any of the
methods involved in human euthanasia.

It's got to be a quick and
painless death that's guaranteed,

which rules out hanging
cos it's not guaranteed.

It mustn't be gory,

that rules out electrocution.

And...it can't depend on prisoner
co-operation, and that rules out gas,

because the prisoner's got to do
something which the prisoner can't do.

So basically, erm... Everything
is ruled out that I've seen so far.

Michael may be struggling to
find an alternative method,

but there are scientists who have
long known how to kill humanely.

Procedures for the euthanasia of lab
animals are rigorously researched.

Dr Bonnie Beaver co-authored America's
most significant report on the subject.

Euthanasia is something
that we deal with every day.

For example, if it's very
important to look at brain tissue

in a particular study,
we can't obviously then

do some kind of euthanasia procedure
that's going to damage that tissue.

So we have to look
for different options.

One of the options Dr Beaver
identified is, in certain animals,

entirely painless.

It's known as hypoxia.

Hypoxia is depriving the brain and
other vital structures of oxygen,

and of course, oxygen is
needed to support life.

But if you're depriving the body of
the stuff of life, of air, of oxygen,

how can that not be stressful?

You could interfere with the
blood's ability to carry oxygen

to different parts of the body.

But how could that happen, Doctor?

I've looked at...cyanide
gas in human beings...

OK...and it causes immense distress.

How could what you say...?

OK, there are a lot of ways
that can be used for hypoxia

that are not painful, so there are
other alternatives beside cyanide.

So it is possible to create hypoxia

without causing
distress? That's correct.

If it's possible to deprive
animals of oxygen in a painless way,

then perhaps the same
can be done with humans.

At the Royal Netherlands
Air Force Physiology Centre,

there's a small group of scientists
who routinely take human subjects

to the brink of death using hypoxia.

Dr Ted Meeuwsen trains pilots
to survive the constant threat

of this deadly condition when
making extreme manoeuvres.

To experience hypoxia for himself,

Michael is going into
a human centrifuge.

There his body will be subjected to a massive
increase in the force of gravity, known as G force.

My God, Ted, am I going
in that thing there?

Well, actually, you are.

It's like an enormous spanner
with a coffin at one end, isn't it?

So you're going to
spin me round in this.

And the blood is...what,
going to go to my feet?

Exactly, because the G forces react
on the body, you become heavier,

and also the inside of
the body becomes heavier,

also the blood becomes heavier.
The blood becomes heavier?

Yeah, and in the blood there
is the oxygen, right? Sure.

So you don't have enough
oxygen then in the head.

So I would...I would
pass out and then...

then I would pass away, yeah? Yeah.

OK. And you're going to monitor
everything that happens to me?

Exactly, and my flight surgeon,

who is also present, will
monitor you all the way.

Do you want to see it? No.

I will show you. All right.

HE SPEAKS DUTCH

LOUD WHIRRING

There it is, nine Gs.

So your body becomes
nine times more heavier.

That's simply dreadful.

When Michael begins to feel hypoxic,
he will lose his peripheral vision.

OK, you can step into the gondola.

Right, OK.

Then, seconds away
from unconsciousness,

everything he sees will turn grey.

Oh, that is, er...
that is very nasty now.

I've got my safety
limits, the door's closed,

the operator is ready, and
the doctor is also ready.

So if you're ready, you may
push the go and keep it there.

Here goes, I'm
pressing it. All righty.

Two, one,

and there's your onset.

Describe to us what you
are feeling right now.

I'm now feeling a lot
of pressure in my body,

I can feel the blood rushing down.

Can you reach your
nose with your hand?

Oh, my goodness, my hand weighs
a ton, I can just about do that.

That's very, very tough,

the horizon's gone completely, and my
arm is being pressed down again now.

I feel very heavy, and I
can't keep my head straight.

Oh, my head is going.
My legs weigh so much.

How is your vision? My vision is still
fine, I can see... but my eyes are getting

very heavy. My vision's
still fine, I can see...

I can see peripheral, but
it's getting very, very tough.

If Michael continues to
spin for another 60 seconds,

the gravity-induced
hypoxia will kill him.

Oh, my head is very heavy!

Oh, now my peripheral's going,
I'm going grey, going grey!

OK, you may shoot the target now.

I'm squeezing... Squeeze the
muscles, squeeze the muscles.

And I'm very, very grey now, I'm
tipping forward very, very badly.

Stare at the horizon.

I need to press those muscles, I'm
forgetting to press those muscles,

I'm staring at the horizon. Wow!

That... That was extraordinary.

My legs felt so incredibly heavy, and
my arms were really heavy, I could...

When I was asked to do that,
I could hardly move this arm.

You nearly blacked out.

Yeah? How much longer? Seconds.

Yeah. Really. Five, eight seconds.

I was on the point of blacking out.

I would then have become unconscious.

If you'd kept it going,
I would be dead. Exactly.

The centrifuge may be the most
effective way of training pilots

to survive hypoxia
in flight manoeuvres,

but it's as far from a perfect
killing method as one can get.

However, within this institute,

there is a device that could prove to
be a viable solution to Michael's quest.

You need to put a mask on your
face and hold it like this.

This is an altitude chamber.

It simulates the low oxygen
concentration you get at high altitude

and provokes a entirely
different form of hypoxia.

In the human centrifuge,
Michael had the blood

pushed from his brain to his feet.

In the altitude chamber, there
will be plenty of blood in his brain

but hardly any oxygen in his blood.

Michael, how are you feeling?

A little tense. A little tense.

I will ask you to remove the
mask at 8,000 or 9,000 feet

and then you will experience
a rapid decompression.

This is a risky experiment, as
unconsciousness can occur quite suddenly.

That was a sudden change.

That's what we call a rapid
decompression. Just recover.

Please, we talk, and tell
me what you're experiencing.

A little bit giddy. Yeah,
a little bit light headed.

Physiologist Dr Hans Wittenberg
is monitoring Michael's condition

by asking him to
complete basic tasks.

Can you show me by sticking up your
fingers how much nine minus five is?

Nine minus five would be four.

Excellent, what card is this?
That's the eight of clubs.

Excellent. Yeah.

Michael's brain is suffering
from oxygen starvation,

making him feel drunk,
euphoric and over-confident.

Can you hold this up for me?

I can hold it up, yeah.

And can you put the
shape in it as well?

All right, I'm looking for...

I'm looking for... Mm-hmm.

I can't see...that one.

It's here. Is it?

Ah... Put it in. OK.

Excellent. What kind of card is this?

It's the three of diamonds.
Three of diamonds? Yeah.

I've got another shape
for you, can you put it in?

Yes, it's the star.

Yes.

Michael will eventually
face an ultimate test.

Will he be able to switch his
oxygen back on and save his life?

Or will he be too far gone to care?

How much is eight minus three?

Eight minus three is four.

Is it four? Eight minus three...

SLURRING: No, eight minus three is...

Michael is dangerously hypoxic.

OK, I think it's time
to recover, Michael.

Can you put up the switches?

Put up the switches or you will die.

Just swing the mask back on.

He's experiencing what appears to
be the perfect method of execution,

and he doesn't care.

Put up the switches or you will die.

Put up the switches.

GARBLED RADIO TRANSMISSION

Can you tell me how you feel now?

Yeah.

How do you feel? I feel much better.

Very good. How much is eight minus
three? Five, definitely, five.

Thank you. Yeah, yeah.

OK... Good.

OK, Hans, thank you. Michael?

Where are we now, Captain?

Well, actually you are
descending now to sea level again,

we are at 26,000 feet.

How much longer until I'd have been
unconscious? A matter of seconds.

Really? I guess ten to
20 seconds and then...

And from there to death?

That's your final destination,
then. If Hans hadn't stepped in...

He saved your life today.

You're kidding. Be very
thankful. Thank you, Hans!

But overall, Michael, was it painful?

No! I thought the experiment
was a failure, because

I was getting all the answers right.

Did I get all the answers
right? In the end, no.

Really? Yes.

I thought I was doing
really well. Yeah!

I thought I'd outwitted
you. THEY LAUGH

Well, I certainly felt
self-confident, obviously I did,

but that's evidently one
of the symptoms of hypoxia.

And I had no idea
that I was near death.

I was just...

Yeah, I was very happy, very happy.

Hell of a way to go.
Hell of a way to go.

Hypoxia seems to be
the perfect way to die.

But Michael now faces
a different problem -

how to implement his chosen method.

I think hypoxia is the solution.

What I haven't thought
about are the practicalities,

because you can't build an expensive altitude
chamber in place of every death chamber.

There's got to be a simpler way.

There is one British scientist
who has been developing

a humane method of killing based on the
euphoric effects of the altitude chamber.

Dr Mohan Raj from Bristol University
has been researching hypoxia

as a way to kill farm
animals in slaughterhouses,

but instead of using a
multi-million pound machine,

he's using a painless gas.

You've been using hypoxia
humanely to kill farm animals.

How are you doing that? We're
using argon and nitrogen.

You're using a gas? Yes. And that produces
the same sort of hypoxia as I experienced?

That's correct, principally
they deprive the brain of oxygen.

And how have you been doing that?
We wanted to choose the gas mixture

that is animal-welfare friendly.
The best way of deciding that

is to ask the pigs if they
were given a free choice

to choose one or the other gas,
what they call preference testing.

Doctor Raj conducted an experiment
in which pigs were offered apples

in a chamber filled with
different hypoxia-inducing gases.

First, he used carbon dioxide, a
toxic gas that irritates the body.

they will not feed
in that atmosphere.

Then he used inert gases
such as nitrogen and argon.

Unlike carbon dioxide and the
poison used in the gas chamber,

inert gasses have no detectable
smell, taste or physical sensation.

So the body has no way of knowing
that the oxygen in the air has been

entirely replaced by another gas.

The painless effect is confirmed
by what the pig did next.

They woke up and just looked around

and went back to feed again on the
apples, and that indicated to us

that it is a stress-free
induction of unconsciousness.

And can I see this
equipment? Of course you can.

So simple!

It is.

We have a source of nitrogen here.

Yeah. Taken through this tube,

and the gas is delivered
using the face mask

to pigs restrained in this hammock.

And would you be able
to change this mask

to a human mask and apply it to me?

Yes, you could, but I
wouldn't recommend it.

Why? Because if you're inhaling pure nitrogen,
you will be unconscious within 15 seconds.

15 seconds, really? That's right.

And how long to
death? Within a minute.

Really? Yes. That's astonishing.

So this really is the
perfect killing machine.

That appears to be the case, yes.

'So it turns out that a canister
of gas, a tube and a mask

'can be the perfect killing
machine. It's as simple as that.'

The method is cheap, it's
viable, it's infallible.

Not only is it painless, but
the person dies with euphoria,

and so science does provide

the answer to how you can have
a humane method of execution.

ON RADIO: 'The people
who are on death row now

'are going to die in
prison, no question.

'Jones also points out that
even if a former inmate...'

With the solution in mind,
Michael has returned to America,

where the debate over the humanity
of the death penalty still rages.

'My interest in this isn't just scientific
- it's practical, too.

'I want to know what people
think of this alternative method.

'I know that most people who are
against the death penalty won't buy it,

'because for them whatever the
method, state execution is murder.

'But most Americans are in
favour of the death penalty,

'and I need to ask those people

'whether they'll go for nitrogen
in place of the lethal injection.'

There's one man who's
uniquely placed to comment.

The leading voice of the pro-death
penalty movement in America,

Professor Robert Blecker, is an expert
on the government's policy on the subject.

Professor, after some investigation,
I think I've come up with

a perfect killing device, an entirely
humane way of killing a prisoner

who's under sentence of death.

It's nitrogen, which renders him
first euphoric and then makes him

unconscious pretty quickly, and
he dies entirely without pain.

What do you think of that?
I think it's terrible.

Terrible, why? If the killers who smash their
victims on the side of the heads with hammers

and then slit their throats
go out, in your own words,

on a euphoric high,
that is not justice.

Was their victim's
last moments euphoric?

Will most of our last
moments be euphoric?

It's about the dignity of the
state. It's about the state

not in any way emulating the terrible
things that the murderers have done.

Punishment's supposed to be painful.
It's supposed to be unpleasant,

that is what it is at its root.

I understand your point, I'm
not sure I understand your logic.

You may have objections to what I have
done, find a perfect killing method...

It's not perfect, it's a painless...

I think it's a
perfect killing method,

because...you know, absolute humanity
is something that you can aspire to,

and absolutely painless death. The
two are not equated. I can achieve...

You are again going back over
and over again and insisting

that humanity and painless
death are equated. They're not.

'All this time I've been using
the expression, "perfect execution,

'"humane execution,
painless execution,"

'as though they're
all the same thing.

'And it turns out they're not.

'What makes a method perfect
is completely subjective.

'For the pro-death penalty lobby,

'using a painless method of execution

'is inhumane to the
victim of the crime.'

But I stick to my guns
- I set out to discover

whether science could offer a painless
way of killing people, and it does,

and I think that is the
right thing to be looking at.

Because for as long as the
state is going to kill people,

I think it has the obligation

to do it in the way

that least resembles murder.

And that's what this
inquiry has come up with,

a painless way of executing people.