Does it hurt to be executed by guillotine? Do you remain conscious after being decapitated? Unfortunately, there’s nobody with first-hand experience around to answer that question. Nevertheless, it is possible to piece together a fair amount of evidence that indicates how a last dance with the guillotine might go down.
The guillotine is the iconic contraption that was designed to swiftly decapitate humans using a large, falling blade. It is best known as the weapon of choice of zealous French Revolutionaries in the 18th century, but it remained a method of execution in the country until the late 20th century. The last person to be executed by guillotine in France was Hamida Djandoubi on September 10, 1977 – that’s after the first Star Wars movie premiered.
An estimated 15,000 to 17,000 people were guillotined during the French Revolution, the majority of which were “common people,” not wealthy aristocrats and decadent royals. Part of the reason the guillotine was widely used during this time was it was considered to be humane.
This rocky era of French history was fuelled by the ideas of Enlightenment, which sought to replace irrational beliefs and Medieval superstition with reason and new theories about the rights of humans. Even when decapitating a mortal enemy, their humanity and dignity should remain respected – or at least that was the idea.
“The blade hisses, the head falls, blood spurts, the man exists no more. With my machine, I’ll have your head off in the blink of an eye, and you will suffer not at all,” Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a French physician who advocated for the use of the guillotine, told the National Assembly of France in 1789.
The suggestion was initially laughed at but the National Assembly voted the guillotine into law in 1792, dubbing it “the most gentle of lethal methods.”
There are a bunch of anecdotal reports that speak of people’s heads appearing to remain conscious after being subject to a guillotine, although it’s hard to know where gruesome urban legend ends and fact begins.
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, kneeling before the guillotine next to her confessor on the day of her execution, October 1793.
Image credit: Wellcome Collection (Public Domain)
One of the most famous stories comes from 1905 when Dr Jacques Beaurieux witnessed the execution of a man in Paris. After decapitation, Beaurieux noticed that the severed head was still moving, with twitching eyes and spasming lip. He called out the criminal’s name – “Languille!” – upon which his pupils adjusted and he widened his stare “in a precise fashion.”
“I had the impression that living eyes were looking at me,” Beaurieux commented.
However, it’s entirely possible this kind of oft-reported phenomena is just spasming muscles in the body’s death throes, rather than evidence of vivid consciousness post-decapitation.
To better understand the brain’s response to decapitation, a 2013 study chopped the heads of several anesthetized rats with a miniature guillotine blade, during which the scientists used an electroencephalogram to keep tabs on the rat’s brain activity.
This revealed that the rat’s brain activity had “significant increases” for up to 15 seconds after being decapitated, suggesting that the animals might be registering some sense of pain.
“These responses are indicative that unanaesthetized rats would be likely to perceive decapitation as painful prior to the onset of insensibility,” the paper concludes.
Other scientists aren’t so sure. A 2023 study reviewed the known evidence about whether any consciousness – and, therefore, perception of pain – is retained after decapitation, concluding that it is very unlikely. Death by decapitation, they surmise, is near-instantaneous.
“The evidence currently available to us is scant, and the studies that imply that there is a retained awareness in decapitated rats for several seconds suffer from a low sample size. While the best evidence currently available to us suggests that LOC [loss of consciousness] is nearly instant in decapitation for both human and rodent models, it is possible that the truth will never be fully known,” the study concludes.
A clearer answer to this question might soon emerge. Researchers are continuing to toy with the idea of head transplantation, while our understanding of consciousness is slowly but surely expanding. It’s possible that these fields of study might someday lead us to an answer.
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