Portillo Seconds From Death - Horizon:How to Kill a Human...

[Fable187]

as Portillo said this is not the perfect execution due to subjective morals - but what for those who wish to end their lives without too emotionaly destroying the ones they love? a euphoric high to be the last thing you experience before you slip into your inevitable (with or without gas) death - for those who feel that life is not suited to them or visa versa this is ultimate (reply feedback)

[stevenbrown19812003]

Why did they put the oxygen mask back on :)

[SieLmx]

Yeah it was on a while ago. and it was an excellent documentary by portillo on finding an acceptable method of execution for humans convicted of capital crimes. He says in the show that he wasnt exploring the debate on the rights and wrongs of death sentences...lets face it there's a huge argument against it. the birmingham six. the guilford four and the maguire 7 are just a few big arguments against. but that hypoxia idea seems very plausible....they'd go out laughing at least.

[JONOCALDWELL]

well i dont know about any of the rest of you.but i found that fascinating.

[MayorVaughn]

The hanging segment of this couldn't have been more badly researched IMHO.

[redstarfruit]

I saw this on tv. I cant believe that Mr Portillo took time to find a conclusion to something so negative. Is this so we have more room to make flats out of the prisons? Why not document "How many people die in police/custody""??

[slimes23]

The easy way to try this is to just inhale from helium balloons. That light headed feeling you get when you use helium to make your voice go funny is the early stage of this.

[TisrolocNo6]

They originally filmed this using Boris Johnson. They couldn't tell whether the lack of oxygen to his brain was mentally affecting him or not though.

[mjkr1988]

hey, leave of boris! lol he went to oxford university! must be something in his brain.

[trunksss5]

hahaha i loled

[zucoy21z89]

Try a bit of nitrogen its painless

[chestertouristcom]

interesting

[fiVestarTum0ur]

portillo must wish he`d teamed up with the beeb years ago. I can`t stand the smug git. Have you seen him on that politics show with Diane Abbot MP? A truly awful pair they are.

[kareemabdullah]

if our creator is for the death penalty who are you to be against it

[kareemabdullah]

oh why didn't they leave it on a couple more seconds

[gert83]

If the programme achieved one thing it was demonstrating what the death penalty is about..revenge, causing pain etc.

Our pro-death penalty, fundy friends should be reminded - "Thou shalt not kill".

[trunksss5]

or 2 wrongs don't make a right :)

[kareemabdullah]

an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth the killer is killed

[Mysterioux]

Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone?

[kpbtm]

an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

[mjkr1988]

he who laughs to whom may he whom ha te whom? the bible is no better for quotations than that book by dan brown.

on the logic of an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind what about the passivists, i.e. the poeple who do not cause harm to others? so then the whole world would not be blind (dead), instead the good will see and the criminals will be blind. gandhi never really thought that through.

[trunksss5]

i can't believe that guy at the end ...

i am against the death penalty.

The state or government should not be allowed to send that person to death, it is murder end of the day.

however since areas of the world want the death penalty they should die without pain or suffering.

the only difference between a murderer and death row is that a person behind a desk sighed a form.

justice isn't about punishing people its about protecting people.

[wecg]

Im not trying to debate the death penalty, but I'm afraid I disagree with your view on justice. You're right in saying that it should be about protecting people, but I feel it should also be about giving people what they deserve and what they earn. Whether or not a psychopathic serial murderer deserves death is too big an issue to debate on YouTube I think.

[trunksss5]

bit out of YouTube i know :).

what what about those people that have been put to death and been later proved innocent?

should those people that put that man or women to death be considered murders.

[tomsega]

This is the modern ethical principle upon which all civilized western societies don't support the death penalt:

It's better to keep 100 murderers alive and jailed than it is to exterminate 1 innocent person.

The US don't see it that way, however.

[collinschickens]

u can watch it on bbc iplayer

[trunksss5]

argh i missed it :(

anyway of watching it?

[Charsiu]

Very interesting last night

[LilHitomi]

Watched this last night.

I was sitting there almost screaming, "Put the mask back on!" Some of those deaths, oh...just horrible. He was a brave guy for going through these experiments.

[NanooMeg]

What a very interesting programme. The most horrifying bit of all was the comment of the "American Expert"

[hawcubites]

The expert was most alarming,claiming justice to the victim was a painfull death ...This is not a "reason"for justice but revenge of some kind.The cycle of violence being re-inforced as a notion fear which does not deter people from commiting hideous crimes.

[benbrown58]

Just saw the show - fascinating! I was disturbed by the comment by the so-called 'expert' towards the end that suggested that death row prisoners should NOT experience a pain-free execution. Surely the 'debt' the prisoner has to pay is death itself; not the journey towards it...

My hat goes off to Michael Portillo for being brave enough to get involved with some of the experiments in the programme... rather you than me, mate!

[headhead9]

i'll watch this

[gnamp]

I bet, depite the experiment being a success the editors did not include the great number of questions he did get right.

[shizney]

no its a new method.

[heckler21]

Some people have died that deserved to live, and some live who deserve death. Who the fuck are we as human beings to determine the fait of others.

[Englishdosser86]

Didn't you just lift that from Lord of the Rings movie?

[heckler21]

from, tolkien and all the others who sed it b4 him, but i did it's as if u neva heard of quoting b4, or was that a rhetorical question. and as your so knowledgeable about who sed wat, tell me who sed 'we don't run america, but we make america run'?

Peace

[secretagentxxxx]

i love shows like this!

[CorvetteTeaser]

waw, did u see how he missed the star shape??? this is really crazy! this is the system they use to execute ppl right??

[CrayfordDresden]

Freaky!

Narration: I love it when Paul Mcgann Narrates.

[SambaDisaWinner]

woah!

[nicholasjames100]

i couldnt work out 9 minus 5 quickly maybe im suffering from a lack of oxygen

[bmarkos]

Humane? Maybe, but humiliating. In his last moments he had no idea of his fate. It does beg the question are we trying to relieve our collective concious by finding more 'humane' ways to kill or are we really concerned for the victim. In any event, I am against capital punishment.

[wormsq]

Its no worse then the lethal injection in america, but i still disagree

[joshopsho]

I think there is controversy as to whether the lethal injection is painless. The victim is rendered paralytic but do they feel the pain? I read somewhere, mebs new scientist, that there was evidence supporting that the victim may be conscious and aware of the pain.

[cjeam9199]

That's true, and there are other concerns regarding the reliability of the drugs and the process of administering them. Im not sure whether it is particularly humiliating, however some would think that, so should criminals be able to choose?

[wormsq]

Ive now just thought, to get the death sentance you have to commit a horrid crime like murder, so fuck em. i hope they do feel the pain.

[TyroneSandalphon]

yeah i thought that was a bit sly the way they slipped it in as "the perfect method of execution".. so nonchalantly..so hideously BBC.

I wish the government sponcered TV companies would get off You Tube .. that is unless the public decide to post content of theirs in a fair use environment of course.

:-)

You Tube for the people!

[JUK1980]

You can always trust there is a Conservative availabe to seek 'better' ways to kill others.

[xXrincessXx]

this seems interesting...

cnt w8 to watch it lool

[trispunk]

Well done Micheal true BRITISH GRIT!!

I think Diane Abbot will be impressed,did she realise she had such an action man sharing the sofa with her?!!

[merlin2k6]

gotta admire portillo's guts though, if he really was seconds from dying that is!

[merlin2k6]

...or how about capital punishment is simply abolished?

[UnholyGuru]

trust the BBC to forget what year they are in, the show will be Tuesday 15 January 2008, 9pm, I thought i had missed a good of TV when i read the description lol.

[GhettoSusake]

lol!

[jazzx251]

Lol - the schedulers must have been in the cabin with Michael!

[Onipod]

That was so tense. God I thought he was going to pass out or something!

[DanVine]

That was good. I'm looking forward to the show, but suspect that will be the best bit.

[hannahoftheworld]

I have to admit that when I first started to watch this clip and had read the info I was tempted to stop watching because I thought the whole idea was rather disturbing, but I am really glad that I watched to the end because it was interesting to see the effect that it had.

Hannah P

[Cowberg]

This looks like the most depressing program ever. Like showing someone a bar of chocolate and then just when they're about to bite in, smacking them around the face for being so impatient.

[MortifiedPenguin09]

that is a good experiment

[WhyDidIGetBanned]

That's brilliant!

[sspud555]

that was a dangerous/good experiment