10 Absolute Worst Ways To Die According To Science

7. Lethal Injection

In the last 40 years, since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the United States has executed almost 1,500 of its criminals with at least another 13 planned for 2016.

Regardless of how barbaric you consider that practice to be, most people tend to agree that our methods are much more humane than all of that messy decapitation and hanging that used to go on. Let's all have a pat on the back for being so clever and moral.

However, this might not actually be true.

It is now thought that the most common method of execution, the lethal injection, could actually be much more cruel and painful than it looks. There are three elements to a lethal injection, sodium thiopental (to render you unconscious), pancuronium bromide (to paralyse you) and potassium chloride (to kill you).

The thing is that, even though it looks like a medical procedure, the whole thing is virtually unregulated. There are no studies, no trials and no real "standard dose" that would ensure it works properly.

It is thought that many convicts are given a dose of sodium thiopental that is far too low, often the highest dose administered is only two times the lethal dose for a small animal. This means that they might be paralysed, but they'll still be semi-conscious as the other two ingredients slowly suffocate them and stop their heart - the process of which is extremely painful. Eyewitness reports have included instances in which inmates groan, writhe and even attempt to sit up during the procedure.

So that's grim, but you could always go for the electric chair, right? Wrong.