Mr. SAVAGE: Well, about a year ago, the Lancet - the British medical journal - had a study of several doctors, saying that men who have been executed in the United States may well have suffered excruciating pain that was to some degree masked by the anesthesia - that they didn't get enough anesthesias to actually give them a painless death.

NPR: High Court Allows Lethal-Injection Challenges

For most pet owners a good death means painless euthanasia in either a veterinary surgery or at home.

ECONOMIST: Time to go, or perhaps not?