Decapitation
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Ho-
lofernes; oil on canvas, Florence 1620.
Capital punishment
Issues
Debate · Religious views · Wrongful execution
Participation of medical professionals in
American executions
By country or region
Australia · Brazil · Canada · PR China · France ·
Germany · India · Iran · Iraq · Italy · Japan ·
Malaysia · New Zealand · Pakistan ·
Philippines · Russia · Singapore · Taiwan
(ROC) · United Kingdom · United States
Methods
Decapitation · Electrocution · Firing squad ·
Gas chamber · Hanging · Lethal injection ·
Shooting · Stoning
Decapitation
(from Latin, caput, capitis,
meaning head), or beheading, is the separa-
tion of the head of a person or animal from
its body. Beheading typically refers to the
act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a
means of murder or execution; it may be
accomplished, for example, with an axe,
sword, knife, wire, or by means of a guillot-
ine. An executioner carrying out decapita-
tions is called a headsman.
Accidental decapitation can be the result
of an explosion, automobile or industrial acci-
dent, [1] improperly-administered execution
by hanging or other violent injury. Suicide by
decapitation is rare, but not unknown. [2]
The word decapitation can also refer, on
occasion, to the removal of the head from a
body that is already dead. This might be done
to take the head as a trophy, for public dis-
play, to make the deceased more difficult to
identify, for cryonics or for other reasons.
In an analogous fashion, decapitation can
also refer to the removal of a head of an or-
ganization. If, for example, the leader of a
country were killed, that might be referred to
as ’decapitation’. It is also used of a political
strategy aimed at unseating high-profile
members of a party, as used by the Liberal
Democrats in the United Kingdom general
election, 2005.[3]
Decapitation is immediately fatal, as brain
death occurs within seconds to minutes
without the support of the organism’s body.
History
Beheading—facsimile of a miniature on wood
in the C