For our neuroethics class as part of the NBB summer study abroad program, one of our extra credit assignments was to locate where exactly in Paris a guillotine used to sit. As such, following our trip to Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, a handful of us scoped the area and set out to find it.
In thinking of the guillotine and relating it to our neuroethics discussions, two points came to mind; the first related to the presence or absence of consciousness following an execution by guillotine and the second related to the question of the psychological and/or neurological effects of the killing on the executioner. For example, is it a high-stress situation for the executioner to perform an execution and therefore, is there an increase in cortisol production in the brain that will ultimately lead to damage of the executioner’s brain structures and connectivity, creating an ethical dilemma for this form of execution?
In terms of the former, it’s difficult to take a stand on whether or not the person killed is still conscious, even for a moment, following an execution. This is partly due to the various definitions of the term consciousness itself. What does it mean to be conscious? Is it solely awareness or are there additional components? No one can definitively say. Even further, some minor “experiments” were conducted in the past to attempt to determine whether or not the subject had any type of awareness following the procedure. This included presenting aromatic salts under the subject’s nose, attempting to initiate a reflex, and also providing auditory stimuli in order to observe any possible reactions (Tanner, 2008). While no reactions were found, this pseudo-experiment fails to provide hard evidence for a lack of consciousness.
Pertaining to the latter, my curiosity peaked in regard to the mental health of the executioners. As such, I took to some research and discovered that in one such study, nearly all the correction officers, “whether involved or uninvolved in the execution process… [had] no incidences of depression and scant evidence of PTSD among the… executioners (Osofsky et al., 2005)”. This was surprising to me, as one would think that it takes some sort of intense training and continuous counseling to be able to consistently be involved with executions. However, moral disengagement from the execution seems to take the role of a protective mechanism during the process.
Overall, the trek we embarked on in order to fulfill an extra credit assignment turned into a pretty interesting learning experience. I’m eager to delve in to additional thought-provoking neuroethical debates in the upcoming weeks.
Citations:
Osofsky, M.J., Bandura, A. & Zimbardo, P.G. Law Human Behavior (2005) 29: 371. https://doi-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/10.1007/s10979-005-4930-1
Tanner, J. (2008, January 25). The Guillotine and Neuroscience. Retrieved June 1, 2018, from http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/01/the-guillotine-and-neuroscience/