Many people can certainly understand why lethal injections are qualified as “unjust,” but there are some relevant factors and contexts that must be keenly considered before answering this.
Firstly, it is amazing how quickly people can, almost without question or criticism, support semi-lethal injections for a variety of cancers: certainly, people hope these injections are life-sustaining at the time (despite the fact that many of the injected chemicals are considered toxic and carcinogenic), but they often cause a great deal of suffering and trauma to the person receiving them; sometimes even heart failure. (Perhaps some also die from these injections.)
Many people have tried to say “no” to chemotherapy, in the hope and/or belief that they might be able to pursue a more gentle or natural course of therapeutic healing. This is often chastised, denied, mocked, or seen as a source of terrible fear to everyone…except the recipient who often loses the power and ability to choose for themselves. Undaunted, people are sent to cancer clinics and centres, only to be injected with chemicals that might have far-reaching, toxic and damaging effects for years afterwards.
This, however, is seen as a “just” form of reaction and treatment to an illness that has cost society billions of dollars. Doctors inject people with relatively toxic drugs to try and cure an illness for which people are still at a loss when it comes to understanding the cause and this is daunting! Billions of dollars have been raised to fund research for the “cure,” yet people are still accepting THIS barbaric system of “curing” it, regardless. In other words, if these strong injections can, in fact, cure cancer, why are people still raising money to this end?
Despite the fact that a variety of knowledge is (and has been) scientifically accepted (such as the fact that medical professionals now recognize that garlic can shrink tumors), this is seldom, if ever, discussed in the confines of a regular physician’s office or cancer clinic (at least in my personal experience). If garlic was a prescription drug that was benefiting pharmaceutical companies, would it be hailed as the new miracle “cure.” After, all, it can shrink tumors (which seems to be an important component of the oft-mentioned criteria for “curing” or “fighting the war” on cancer).
Imagine the impact it might have to aggressively promote this 10 cent “remedy” to the billions of people donating to cancer runs, walks, and endless fundraisers: “A clove a day keeps injections away,” for example. This would quite likely be an instant lawsuit. It would be cheap and affordable, however, and a humble beginning for a preventative plan.
Yes, there is a place for drugs when they are wisely used; however, when there is so much information about the toxic sprays and other environmental toxins people are presently subjected to, and the carcinogenic results on human bodies, some people would rather see the imposition of these toxic chemicals regulated so they could have freedom of choice about some of the ills they are procuring without a choice.
Probably when lethal injections are used in the context of criminal justice, people often forget that the recipient might have committed the most heinous of crimes, and they had a choice when they committed these crimes. When it is 100% certain that a criminal has, indeed, been responsible for these acts, why must people fight so hard for “justice” to keep them alive? People spend more energy and care on these people than the traumatized families and other living victims, and this is a marvel.
When a person is investing so much time fighting the death penalty, lethal injection, and any other form of justice that seems “harsh,” it would behoove people as a society (when confronted/challenged by abolitionists that ask how they could even consider “murdering” a murderer) to ask for crime scene photos, present them to the abolitionists, and ask them to wake up every morning of their “fight,” view the photos carefully – imagine this victim was their spouse/child/relative – tuck them in their pockets and briefcases, and every time they wish to take up the fight, survey each and every photo of the victim(s) before taking up the fight again.
Capital punishment is quite likely not ideal; lethal injection is not ideal (despite the fact that people attempt to use similar methods in “healing” disease), but people might wish to invest more energy on the multitudinous factors that contribute to crime, while still allowing victimized families the freedom to desire and access justice without feeling such immense guilt for doing so (compounding the grief and loss they already feel).
In summary, society witnesses a great deal of suffering that hurts, angers, and traumatizes it and some of it might be unnecessary. It can only be hoped that it will develop the same passion for similar and pervasive injustices that are inflicted without question. There are enough sorrows in this societal day and age without people expending excessive effort in their attempts to rehabilitate and “save” the criminal element.