Editing Guillotine (section)

{{Short description|Apparatus designed for carrying out executions by beheading}}
{{About|the device used to carry out executions by beheading|the paper slicing tool|Paper cutter|other uses|Guillotine (disambiguation)}}
{{more citations needed|date=April 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2020}}
[[File:Guillotine Luxembourg 01.jpg|thumb|The guillotine used in [[Luxembourg]] between 1789 and 1821]]
A '''guillotine''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|g|ɪ|l|ə|t|i:|n}} {{respell|GHIL|ə|teen}} {{IPAc-en|ˌ|g|ɪ|l|ə|ˈ|t|iː|n}} {{respell|GHIL|ə|TEEN}} {{IPAc-en|ˈ|g|i|j|ə|t|i|n}} {{respell|GHEE|yə|teen}})<ref>{{Cite OED|guillotine}}</ref> is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out [[executions]] by [[Decapitation|beheading]]. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled [[blade]] suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with a [[pillory]] at the bottom of the frame, holding the position of the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass; the head falls into a basket or other receptacle below.

The guillotine is best known for its use in [[France]], particularly during the [[French Revolution]], where the revolution's supporters celebrated it as the people's avenger and the revolution's opponents vilified it as the pre-eminent symbol of the violence of the [[Reign of Terror]].<ref>R. Po-chia Hsia, Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, and Bonnie G. Smith, ''The Making of the West, Peoples and Culture, A Concise History, Volume II: Since 1340'', Second Edition (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007), 664.</ref> While the name "guillotine" dates from this period, similar devices had been in use elsewhere in Europe over several centuries. Use of an oblique blade and the pillory-like restraint device set this type of guillotine apart from others. Display of severed heads had long been one of the most common ways European sovereigns exhibited their power to their subjects.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.2307/2928715 | jstor=2928715 | last1=Janes | first1=Regina | title=Beheadings | journal=Representations | year=1991 | issue=35 | pages=21–51 }}</ref>

The design of the guillotine was intended to make capital punishment more reliable and less painful in accordance with new [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideas of human rights. Prior to use of the guillotine, [[France]] had inflicted manual beheading and a variety of methods of execution, many of which were more gruesome and required a high level of precision and skill to carry out successfully. 

After its adoption, the device remained France's standard method of judicial execution until the [[Capital punishment in France#Abolition|abolition of capital punishment]] in 1981.<ref name="legifrance.gouv.fr">{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000319513&dateTexte=20090728 Loi n°81-908 du 9 octobre 1981 portant abolition de la peine de mort] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731141543/http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000319513&dateTexte=20090728 |date=31 July 2013 }}. Legifrance.gouv.fr. Retrieved on 2013-04-25.</ref> The last person to be executed by a government via guillotine was [[Hamida Djandoubi]], a Tunisian murderer, on 10 September 1977 in France.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the guillotine |last=Fabricius |first=Jørn |work=guillotine.dk |date= |access-date=21 March 2022 |url= https://guillotine.dk/pages/history.html}}</ref>