Joseph-Ignace Guillotin

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin
Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (Musée Carnavalet, Paris)
Born	(1738-05-28)28 May 1738 Saintes, France
Died	26 March 1814(1814-03-26) (aged 75) Paris, France
Resting place	Père Lachaise Cemetery
Education	Irish College, Bordeaux Reims University University of Paris
Occupation	Physician
Known for	Proposing a painless method for executions, inspiring the guillotine

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (French: [ʒozɛf iɲas ɡijɔtɛ̃]; 28 May 1738 – 26 March 1814) was a French physician, politician, and freemason who proposed on 10 October 1789 the use of a device to carry out executions in France, as a less painful method of execution than existing methods. Although he did not invent the guillotine and opposed the death penalty, his name became an eponym for it. The actual inventor of the prototype was a man named Tobias Schmidt, working with the king's physician, Antoine Louis.