Prosper's Demon

by K.J. Parker

And the effect on his work—it’s quite a skilled business, they told me, there’s far more to it than people realize. You need to be able to figure out the length of drop based on the individual’s height and weight. You need to judge angles and the precise degree of power to sever the spinal cord. Otherwise, you get people’s heads coming off when they’re hanged, and not coming off when they’re beheaded, and that sort of thing reflects on the community as a whole.

And if you listen to your scruples, the bleatings of conscience and its misguided appeals to the basic standards of our common humanity, you could well allow a greater evil because you shrink from getting your hands red with a lesser one.