A University of Wisconsin professor plans to test his hypothesis that deaths occurring after Taser use are not a result of the darts but instead caused by the drugs present in the person’s system.

After more than 70 deaths in the past three years, the use of Taser guns, which emit a 50,000-volt electrical charge, has come into question as an ethical way to temporarily immobilize crime suspects. However, biomedical engineering professor John Webster said he hypothesizes the Taser guns are not the cause of death, and the fatalities could instead possibly be attributed to drugs present in the person’s system.

“[My] overall goal is to determine if Tasers can electrocute the heart or not,” Webster said.

Webster explained he believes drugs, such as cocaine, cause the deaths, because a vast majority of the people who died had some form of drug in their system. He added that, of the people who died, most people were conscious for several minutes following the ejection of the dart. However, if the people were being electrocuted, their blood pressure would have dropped to zero and they would have fainted.

Webster said he thinks Tasers are beneficial to policemen. He noted the death of a mentally ill person who entered a day-care center in March 2004 and was shot to death by an officer. Webster said if a Taser gun had been used, the man would likely be alive today.

“I am in favor of saving human lives, and I believe the Taser does that,” Webster said.

Amnesty International member and UW junior Tehmina Islam said the organization does not agree with the use of Taser guns on humans. She said there has not been enough research yet to determine Taser guns’ effects.

“It is an unethically inhumane treatment,” Islam said.

Islam added Amnesty International advocates the use of non-lethal, less forceful methods to detain crime suspects.

Webster, who received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct his two-year research, will test his hypothesis on pigs. Webster said using pigs for the research is the best option because pigs’ hearts and skin are similar to humans’.

Webster said some of the pigs will be shot with the Taser, some of the pigs will be injected with drugs by anesthesiologists and others will receive both the drugs and the Tasers. He will then measure the effects of the drugs and the Tasers on the pigs’ hearts.

Islam added she does not support Webster’s animal testing and questioned the comparison of pigs to humans.

Webster said preliminary results from his research would be available in roughly six months to a year.