I've always assumed that she survives but is horribly disfigured after having her skin stretched so much. Augustus is the one who I think may have died.
I worked for a catering company that was looking into making a bid on a contract at a for profit prison company in California. The bosses had the chef put together a 7 day sample menu. He shows it to me and asks for feedback. This guy put stuff like quinoa and salmon on there. I just started laughing. I couldn't help it. He askes what was funny and I asked him what the food cost was. Apparently no one thought to ask or had a clue what a typical prison meal consisted of. He just sort of assumed it would be around 6-7 dollars per meal. The contract was for 87 cents per meal. That's right. The prison wanted 3 meals per person per day for $2.61. To be fair, there was also a flat fee but it would barely cover the cost of delivering the meals and the additional staff required to produce them. For it to be worth it to the owners, we would have had to produce those meals for about $1.50 per person per day. You don't get to serve roasted salmon with quinoa salad at that price point.
Well, there's a few pretty obvious reasons. The main one being the consequences. Additionally, one would require the means and opportunity to do it and the time to plan it. Also consider that America is a huge place and the president doesn't bother to visit every part of it. Someone who was inclined to do that may have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to try. Lastly, the idea of taking a human life is abhorrent to most people.
No, they aren't. At least not in their current form.