I know there are some Anethesiology-types around here that could comment. I think most people react to the gases used to induce for surgery, not the sodium thiopental used in Ohio as a single drug for execution since late 2009.
Before the change last year, scumbags were also given pancuronium, a paralytic agent, as well as large doses of potassium chloride to induce an arrhythmia in the heart from electrolyte imbalance.
If pruning down to 1 drug - the inmates could have been given just pancuronium - so they would be "locked in" - fully aware and feeling without the ability to move/breathe...but I guess that would be considered inhumane... 
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"The dignity of man is not shattered in a single blow, but slowly softened, bent, and eventually neutered. Men are seldom forced to act, but are constantly restrained from acting. Such power does not destroy outright, but prevents genuine existence. It does not tyrannize immediately, but it dampens, weakens, and ultimately suffocates, until the entire population is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid, uninspired animals, of which the government is shepherd." - Alexis de Tocqueville
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