<unk>  refers to the practice of<unk> g a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the explicit  purpose of causing the death of the subject. The main applications for this practice are euthanasia, suicide, and capital punishment.<unk>  gained popularity in the twentieth century as form of execution intended to supplant other methods, notably electrocution, hanging, firing squad, gas chamber, and decapitation, that were considered to be less humane. The humaneness of<unk>  has been debated. It is now the most common form of execution in the United States: every American execution in 2005 was conducted by<unk> .<unk>  has also been used in cases of euthanasia to facilitate voluntary death in patients with terminal or chronically painful conditions. Both applications have used similar drug combinations.
The concept of<unk>  as a means of putting one to death was first proposed in 1888 by Julius Mount Bleyer, a New York doctor who praised it as being cheaper and more humane than hanging. Bleyer's idea, however, was never used. The British Royal Commission on Capital Punishment (1949–53) also considered<unk> , but eventually rejected it after pressure from the British Medical Association (BMA).
Nazi Germany's T-4 Euthanasia Program used<unk>  (with drugs that differed from the modern method) as one of several methods to destroy "life unworthy of life."
In 1977, Oklahoma's state medical examiner, Jay Chapman, proposed a new, 'more humane' method of execution, known as Chapman's Protocol: "An intravenous saline drip shall be started in the prisoner's arm, into which shall be introduced a<unk>  consisting of an ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic." After being approved by anesthesiologist Stanley Deutsch, Reverend Bill Wiseman introduced the method into the Oklahoma legislature where it passed and was quickly adopted (Title 22, Section 1014(A)). Since then, thirty-seven of the thirty-eight states using capital punishment have introduced<unk>  statutes. On 7 December 1982, Texas became the first state to use<unk>  to carry out capital punishment, for the execution of Charles Brooks, Jr..
The People's Republic of China began using this method in 1997, Guatemala in 1998, the Philippines in 1999, Thailand in 2003, and Taiwan in 2005. 
Execution by nitrogen asphyxiation was proposed in 1995 as an alternative to<unk>  and appears occasionally in online discussions, but as of 2022 is not used by any nation.
Lethal injection
Thiocarboxime
Esketamine
Metharbital
First aid
Codoxime
Internal decapitation
Acetylglycinamide chloral hydrate