If I'm not mistaken.......the guillotine is supposed to actually be one of the quickest and most "humane" deaths of this manner.....It was the psychological impact of seeing someone's head chopped off that I believe put an end to the practice.....I've been told that they actually did some experimenting with it and that people were still having brain wave functions occurring for I think it was maybe 10-15 seconds after being decapitated and they determined this through some kind of eye blink test......I mean, you've severed the spinal chord so I wouldn't think you would be feeling a whole lot of pain for those 10-15 seconds......and anyone who was still able to take part in a headless eye blink survey couldnt be in too much agony or they would just bawk on participating I would think.......but......who knows.