Do People Really Remain Conscious When Guillotined?

For thousands of years, societies from all over the world have come up with various ways to kill off anyone who either did them wrong, stood in their way, or simply just had to go. This involved burying them alive, feeding them to wild animals, boiling them to death, pulling their limbs from their bodies, burning them at the stake, hanging them, cutting their heads off, and death by firing squad. None of which sounds like a good way to go, if we’re honest.

Though the majority of the world’s governing bodies have done away with capital punishment, prisoners are still actively being executed in 54 countries around the world, which includes the United States, Japan, China, India, Taiwan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and some African countries like Egypt, South Sudan, and Somalia.

In 2015, there was some debate in the US regarding which method of execution was the most humane after Pfizer refused to sell the US drugs that would be used for lethal injections. Prisoners who were executed by a firing squad could be expected to live for up to two minutes after being shot. Death by electric chair can take up to almost three minutes, with one botched electrocution in 1985 having lasted 17 minutes.

Prisoners who were to be hanged could be expected to suffer for up to 11 minutes before they died, and the gas chamber isn’t much better, since the doomed prisoner could be expected to gasp for breath for up to 18 minutes before finally suffocating to death. And though you’d think that the lethal injection would be the most humane way to go, it’s not, since it can now take anything between 5 minutes to 2 hours for the prisoner to be declared dead.

Death by guillotine was judged to be the most humane, with death occurring almost instantly. But recent studies suggest that people may remain conscious for some time after being guillotined.

Where Resides the Soul

Some of the earliest stories of a person remaining conscious after death started doing the rounds in 1536 after Anne Boleyn was executed. According to legend, her disembodied head had opened and closed its mouth as if trying to speak. Following the execution of convicted assassin Charlotte Corday during the French Revolution, a man named Legros allegedly picked up her head and slapped her cheek, and witnesses would later claim that her disembodied head seemed insulted by the act.

In 1795, during the height of the French Revolution, German physician and anatomist Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring argued that death by guillotine was nothing more than torture, since — “the feeling, personality, and self remain alive in the severed head for a few moments after the execution.” As proof, Sömmerring cited several witnesses who’d seen the lips of decapitated heads move, saw their eyes follow people around a room, or seemed to try to speak before death finally took them.

A French doctor named Jean-Joseph Sue backed up Dr. Sömmerring’s initial claims by explaining that the brain is the only organ that can process pain and that it is likely that after it’s cut off from the body, the brain retains — “perception of its execution, and then after-thought of its ordeal.” Dr.

Sue went on to test his theory by decapitating several animals and noted that their heads kept moving for ‘a number of seconds’ after it had been cut off. He concluded that it was proof that some feeling remained for up to a minute after decapitation, and explained that — “a single minute of pain is incalculably long for the person feeling it.”

Many scientists disagreed with his conclusions, with Dr. Lepelletier arguing that the ‘three conditions’ that were needed to sustain life were removed once a person’s head is cut off, and just because its reflexes are still working — “that does not prove that it still feels and knows suffering, because every day we see people who have violent convulsive movements declare, when they regain consciousness, that they have no idea of having felt pain.”

This resulted in an onslaught of opinions and theories on whether or not the soul or a person’s sense of self resided in the head or the body, and whether decapitation was really the ‘most gentle’ method of executing someone. Of course, at the time, none of the proposed theories could be scientifically proven, though some did their best. One study that took place in 1791 involved probing the nerves and muscles of a recently executed criminal, which resulted in the body and face muscles contracting. The observers concluded that the spasms were evidence that the body was still conscious after death.

After Luigi Galvani published his findings on bio-electro-magnetics in 1791, scientists started attaching electric probes to the muscles and nerves in decapitated heads to try and establish whether the person remained conscious following their execution. One of these gruesome experiments took place in Poland on the 25th of February 1803. Electrical probes were attached to the nerve endings of the freshly decapitated head of a criminal, and it was then held up by an assistant while the probes were attached to a battery. Onlookers watched on as a scientist shouted at and yelled at the head, and later reported that the eyes and mouth kept moving for at least one and a half minutes after decapitation.

On the 21st of November 1803, several medical students in the German city of Mainz performed a similar experiment by repeatedly shouting into the faces of decapitated heads seconds after their execution. Without the help of electrical probes, however, their expressions remained impassive and led the study to conclude that — “loss of consciousness is practically instantaneous and irrevocable upon decapitation.”

The results of this final study seemed to finally put an end to the question of whether decapitated heads retained consciousness, but in 1975, interest in the topic was reawakened when a study done on decapitated lab rats revealed that their brains remained active for up to 13.6 seconds after decapitation. Worst still, the EEG findings suggested that the rats were experiencing ‘discomfort and pain’ before the brain finally stopped showing any activity. So is it possible that humans do remain conscious after decapitation?

The Most Gentle of Lethal Methods

Since it’s considered to be unethical to decapitate people for the sake of science, the only reliable way we have to determine whether or not humans remain conscious after decapitation is by relying on the studies that are made on decapitated lab rats. The 1975 study has since come under fire since its sample size only consisted of 10 rats, but a more recent study was performed in Denmark in 2011 and worked with a sample of 22 rats, although only 17 of them delivered results.

The Danish study explains that there is a need for rodent brains that aren’t contaminated by gasses or anaesthetics, and so many scientists conclude that the most humane way of euthanising these rats is by decapitation. Because of the findings of the 1975 study, the question is often asked whether or not decapitation could be considered humane, and so the team was tasked with finding out just how long the rats remain conscious after beheading.

During the study, one group of rats were given anaesthesia, while the other was left fully aware of their surroundings. Electrodes were placed on their heads, and an EEG reading for each rat was taken for 30 seconds before decapitation to establish a baseline. Afterwards, the EEG recordings lasted for five minutes to capture any brain activity that may take place after decapitation.

Once the readings were analysed, the scientists observed a noticeable dip in brain activity in both groups of rats immediately following decapitation. Brain activity then spiked for around two to three seconds before dying off completely within 10 seconds of decapitation. This led the scientists to conclude that the rats lost consciousness within 3 seconds of decapitation, and would have lost all sense of pain after that.

Most interesting though, was a final upsurge in brain activity between 60 and 80 seconds after decapitation. They speculate that this is a result of the brain dying from a lack of oxygen, resulting in the neurons dying out. That final wave was subsequently called the ‘wave of death’.

Neurologists have since recorded the same phenomenon occurring in human brains. A recent study that was published in the magazine Neurobiology of Disease in November 2023, explains that they’d studied EEG readings of patients who were taken off life support to determine how long a human brain can survive once the oxygen supply to the brain is cut off. They confirm that a similar process takes place in human brains — all brain activity ceases after a few seconds, and then a final wave is observed after all the available oxygen in the brain has been used up.

“This critical event, called anoxic depolarization, induces neuronal death throughout the cortex. Like a swan song, it is the true marker of transition towards the cessation of all brain activity.”

In 2022, a similar phenomenon was observed after an 87-year-old patient with epilepsy unexpectedly passed away from heart failure while connected to an EGG machine. Unlike the patients in the 2023 study, this patient had been awake and conscious when they suffered cardiac arrest, and the EGG machine showed a decrease in brain activity within the first 10 to 30 seconds after the person was declared to be legally dead. The doctors also noted that the areas of the brain that were still active, were the ones associated with cognitive processes and memory recall, supporting the theory that patients who are dying experience a ‘recall of life’ before all brain function ceases. This in turn has sparked debates regarding when a person can be considered to be dead — when the heart stops beating, or when the brain stops showing any activity.

This brings us back to the original question — do people remain conscious once they are decapitated? All the evidence suggests that once someone is decapitated, they’ll lose consciousness within the first two seconds, after which their brain slowly dies from oxygen deprivation. So no, people aren’t aware of what is happening around them once they’ve been decapitated.

But why is this question still relevant? There is currently only one country in the world that still practices decapitation as a form of capital punishment, and that is Saudi Arabia. Male prisoners are decapitated using a sword called a sulthan, and according to one account from 1989, it often takes more than one blow with a sword to fully decapitate someone. In 2015, Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals explained that it is also highly unlikely that the US would reinstate the guillotine as a form of execution, since — “The guillotine is probably best, but seems inconsistent with our national ethos.”

However, in 2013, Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero suggested that it might be possible to perform a successful head transplant in humans, once more sparking interest in the question of whether or not his patients would retain their consciousness after surgical decapitation. Canavero would later join up with Ren Xiaoping, a Chinese orthopaedic surgeon, and together they would come up with a method for performing successful human head transplants. However, neither one of them has been able to prove their widely contested theories, and the only person who’d publicly volunteered to be their test subject, backed out in 2018 after he became a father to a little boy.

However, if they are to be successful, there are several hurdles they must overcome first, the least of which is how they plan on keeping the brain alive for more than a minute without losing brain function. Until then, head transplants and talking heads in jars will remain in the realm of science fiction, a possibility we won’t have to consider for at least another hundred years or so.

Key Takeaways

• Historically, various brutal methods of execution have been used worldwide.
• Decapitation was once considered the most humane method of execution.
• Studies on rats suggest humans lose consciousness within seconds of decapitation.
• Saudi Arabia is the only country that still practices decapitation as capital punishment.
• Head transplants remain a theoretical possibility but face significant scientific hurdles.

Frequently Asked Questions

What methods of execution are considered inhumane?

Methods such as firing squad, electric chair, hanging, gas chamber, and lethal injection are considered inhumane due to the prolonged suffering they can cause.

How long can a person remain conscious after being executed by a firing squad?

Prisoners executed by a firing squad can be expected to live for up to two minutes after being shot.

What was the debate in the US regarding execution methods in 2015?

The debate in the US in 2015 was about which method of execution was the most humane after Pfizer refused to sell drugs for lethal injections.

What did Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring argue about death by guillotine?

Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring argued that death by guillotine was nothing more than torture, as the feeling, personality, and self remain alive in the severed head for a few moments after the execution.

What did the 1975 study on decapitated lab rats reveal?

The 1975 study revealed that the brains of decapitated lab rats remained active for up to 13.6 seconds, suggesting they might experience discomfort and pain.

What did the 2011 Danish study on decapitated rats conclude?

The 2011 Danish study concluded that rats lost consciousness within 3 seconds of decapitation and would have lost all sense of pain after that.

What is the ‘wave of death’ observed in brain activity?

The ‘wave of death’ is a final upsurge in brain activity observed between 60 and 80 seconds after decapitation, resulting from the brain dying due to a lack of oxygen.

Which country still practices decapitation as a form of capital punishment?

Saudi Arabia is the only country that still practices decapitation as a form of capital punishment, using a sword called a sulthan.

What is the current status of human head transplants?

Human head transplants remain in the realm of science fiction, with no successful procedures proven. The main challenge is keeping the brain alive without losing function.

Sources

• Original Into the Shadows video: Do People Really Remain Conscious When Guillotined?
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment#Methods
• https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/firing-squad-gas-chamber-how-long-executions-take-n329371
• https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/us/pfizer-execution-drugs-lethal-injection.html
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/guillotine
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Corday
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine#Living_heads
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9930870/
• https://www.cairn-int.info/revue-revue-d-histoire-des-sciences-2008-2-page-333.htm?contenu=article
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3884824/
• https://neurosciencenews.com/death-brain-neuroscience-25356/
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969996123003613?via%3Dihub
• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.813531/full?utm_source=fweb&utm_medium=nblog&utm_campaign=ba-sci-fnagi-what-happens-in-the-brain-when-we-die
• Hero image source by Christian Herrmann / openverse, by-sa.

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