In a first, an American woman used a suicide pod to take her own life. The process took place in Switzerland. It’s done by pumping in only nitrogen gas, so the person will lose goes dizzy, loses consciousness and eventually dies. Enter futurama memes.

  • MyDogLovesMe@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Ok. I just read this as a way to die in an Andy Weir novel

    The book also makes a pretty good case for heroin as a suicide method. I was swayed.

  • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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    17 hours ago

    On a pet forum people regularly talk about (and suggest to others) how they euthanize their old / sick rodents at home using carbon-dioxide unlike nitrogen like this capsule uses. I looked into what’s the difference and it turns out inhaling pure carbon-dioxide instantly causes panic and the sense of suffocation and it’s a horrible way to die. They were even able to cause an panic attack on a person physically uncapable of experiencing fear. There are videos online about killing pigs like this and it’s not a pretty sight. Suffice to say I no longer take advice from those people.

    • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      The speed can significantly vary with CO2. I don’t like it much myself, but due to how hemoglobin works it forces your lungs to work backwards and dump oxygen like you were in the vacuum of space. Unconsciousness is generally very rapid compared to other asphyxiants.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      Ya CO2 is basically the feeling of normal suffocation. Might as well hold a plastic bag over their head.

      • pixeltree
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        5 hours ago

        Which isn’t too bad if you can stay calm and relax tbh. Slow deep breaths let you feel like you’re doing something to continue your survival without the panic of frantic breathing. Takes a bit of practice but honestly not as bad as it seems.

    • Lyrl@lemm.ee
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      9 hours ago

      Co2 reaction is highly, highly concentration-dependent. Rodent euthanasia ideally starts around 20% which makes them cranky and sleepy, they go to sleep, then concentration is upped to around 80% and they die very quickly. Yes, they feel bad when they go to sleep, but it is a mild bad and it’s all over quickly. Rodent euthanasia horror stories are about getting the concentration wrong, not the co2 itself.

      Nitrogen - as long as the flow is strong enough to remove exhaled co2 - won’t make anyone cranky, but it takes longer, and the longer it takes the higher the risk of something going wrong with the setup. So, tradeoffs.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      There are more and more vets that are using firearms now on farms to euthanize because the drugs they use also cause panic. A 9mm round to the brain instantly incapacitates the animal, they don’t even know what happens. It’s the kindest way to euthanize your animals, anyone telling you the cocktail of drugs or co2 is more humane is full of shit.

      • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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        8 hours ago

        Not to mention that the drug they use, euthanyl is very bad to get into the ecosystem. If you have a pet euthanized then you can’t take it home and bury it because the chemical will poison anything that happens to dig up the body and eat it.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Yup, there have been a lot of reports of vultures getting sick or dying from improperly disposed animals.

          • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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            7 hours ago

            In a way I hope my dog dies of natural causes because I don’t want to put him down and not get to put him in the forest of our backyard.

            Cremation is bullshit, they cremate a pile of pets all at once and scoop out some for each person. You likely aren’t getting your own pet back.

            • TriflingToad@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              You say this now but man you don’t want to see how sad a dog is when they are really old can hardly walk. Sit in the corner all day and just be alone. Only coming out for food/water.

            • Zink@programming.dev
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              6 hours ago

              Our vet offers a choice between group or solo cremation, with the latter of course costing more.

              And yeah that’s assuming they’re being honest, lol.

            • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              See if you can find a farm vet, they’ll come to your house and euthanize you’re pet with you there and then you can bury him yourself on your own property.

      • Lyrl@lemm.ee
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        9 hours ago

        Physical trauma makes sense for large animals. If you have 50 lab rats that you need to euthanize, a gassing setup can make more sense than individually whacking them.

    • Hugin@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Yeah your drive to breathe is based on CO2 in the blood not O2 level. The higher the CO2 the more you feel the need to breathe. That’s why the capsule uses nitrogen. You don’t respond to the lack of O2 and can still flush the CO2 from your system.

    • SanitationStation@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      That’s horrible. Why would anyone think that co2 is in any way an acceptable way of taking a life?

      I guess it’s slightly more efficient than just putting your pets in an airtight container. But still pretty awful.

      • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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        15 hours ago

        Because it’s cheap and effective. Why splurge on a bottle of compressed nitrogen or argon when all it does is forgo suffering and cost more? Think of the bottom line.

        • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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          10 hours ago

          Is nitrogen even expensive to get? It’s absolutely everywhere, 70% of air is nitrogen

          • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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            9 hours ago

            It’s not rare but it’s a pain in the ass to purify and transport. Semiconductor place I used to work had a gigantic 1000 gallon tank of the stuff they had to get refilled every month. Had to have some specialty chemical tanker truck it out. Then there’s problems with icing your whole setup once you actually have the stuff and try to use it. It’s less of an immediate fiscal strain and more of an expensive infrastructure problem.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      Would I rather die breathing bottled carbon dioxide, or burn to death? Actually given what actually kills most people in fires isn’t the burns but smoke inhalation maybe I’ll go with the bottle of CO2. What about freezing to death? Might depend on the OAT, if it’s like 30 out that would take a long time to expire, but -50?

      What a grim line of thought.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I believe freezing to death is considered one of the better ways to go, actually. My understanding is that hypothermia is painful to start but then you are numb and out of it as it progresses.

  • Lugh@futurology.todayM
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    21 hours ago

    As sad as this topic is, this is a much better way to go than a prolonged miserable painful death where you suffer the last months of a terminal disease.

    • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
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      18 hours ago

      Terminal or not this is a human way of accepting death.

      Imagine your an old 70+/ 80+ couple that are ready to go but together. You can hold your spouses hand, spend time with family, and say your final goodbyes while you are still mentally functioning. Not a burden on anyone or heart broken after losing your partner.

      To me, this is a great alternative to dying alone in a cold “retirement home.” I know it is not for everyone but, my partner and I have talked about as an option.

    • x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      16 hours ago

      It’s a techbro solution for something that didn’t need a techbro solution. The current way of doing it is trough chemicals that induce loss of consciousness, pain relief, and eventually death.

      Active euthanasia is legal in a few countries for terminally ill patients. They have to submit to psychological tests and must be deemed fully understanding of the situation. My grandfather passed away like this a few weeks ago. He organized his own funeral and had some time with my mother and his other children.

      To try and push this “invention” and just go for it without going trough the legal processes is just bad and shows not much care by the creators.

      • Lugh@futurology.todayM
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        2 hours ago

        Active euthanasia is legal in a few countries for terminally ill patients.

        That doesn’t seem an accurate description of the situation. Yes, doctors and nurses sometimes ‘help people along’ in their final hours or even days, that is not the same thing as the euthanasia being described here.

        • x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          29 minutes ago

          No I am talking about “active euthanasia”. Look it up. You are talking about “passive euthanasia”.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      20 hours ago

      Its such a difficult topic to write about. You shouldnt glorify it but you also have to respect peoples wish to die. Putting that sort of sincerity into text is hard imo, but the article did a good job at it. Weird that they arrested the photographer tho :/

      I cant imagine a much more peaceful way to go under her conditions.

      • Chee_Koala@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        I found it became a lot easier after my dad took almost three days to ‘die’ after he could no longer really live with his lung, throat and shoulder cancer. I get that dieing sucks ass, but if the alternative is dieing really really slowly, assisted death is really beautiful. Too bad our doctor had moral objections, which is fair for them, but it wasn’t to us. We did not have this nitrogen capsule, we just had to wait it out and let our loved one gurgle themselves to death.

        • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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          3 hours ago

          I am very thankful for the hospice nurses assigned to my Grandma, who was doomed to a similar fate to your Father, had they not mercifully increased her dosage of pain meds until she passed.

          It’s really sad that there aren’t better end of life options, and we need to rely on the Mercy of whatever medical staff are assigned to care for us at the end of our lives. At least here in the US.

          My condolences to you and may your father rest peacefully.

        • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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          12 hours ago

          My grandmother chose to spend the last of her time “at home, with dignity.”

          We (mom and siblings) lived with her, and got to experience the whole thing. I will spare you the details, but it was not dignified.

          I will never put another person through that in my life. Not even hospital staff. If I ever receive a terminal diagnosis, I’m immediately going to begin planning my exit - likely in a similar fashion as above.

    • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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      19 hours ago

      It’s also a way for an ableist and ageist society to drive vulnerable people to take matters in to our own hands, instead of “forcing” it to act more directly (as opposed to “only” slightly less directly systemically financially and socially oppressing and excluding us), in a kind of “guilt free” eugenics.

      Should people have the right to die, and are there some situations where self euthanasia would be the best way to go? Sure. But lets not pretend that sick, disabled, and or old people have nothing to give and are suffering simply for existing as such, and not because society does very little to accommodate, integrate or even accept us. Capitalism frames us as lazy burdens on the system, and if/once we can’t contribute to the machine, we (and you, if you become ill, have an accident, or just age) get violently tossed to the margins, our lives made impossible to survive without pain and trauma external to our condition/s.

      From what I can find, this capsule costs $20 to use, while existing as an old and or disabled person can cost hundreds to tens of thousands more a year. Making society accessible and inclusive would require a lot of work from people who don’t want or care to do it, providing us with this “out” gives them their own.

      Be very wary of promoting this as a good solution to people’s suffering without taking in to account just how much of that suffering is created by society and its refusal to be inclusive.

      • onlinepersona@programming.dev
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        17 hours ago

        I know you mean well, but you don’t provide solutions of any kind. Simply saying the equivalent of “we should be better to fellow humans” isn’t going to change the world. It’s a platitude.

        How do you propose we help the people currently suffering? We just let them suffer until society figures out how to help them? Unite arms and block suicide machines because “they are an easy way out and we should be helping them instead”? Sure, you’re absolutely right, we should be helping them all now, but that’s not how change works. It’s not immediate. While we figure this stuff out, a bunch of people are going to suffer and die painfully.

        Also, even if the cynical ending is “the government promotes suicide to get rid of the weak”, I’d argue it’s better than suffering until death.

        Anti Commercial-AI license

      • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        You’re right that there’s too much unnecessary suffering imposed by our societal system. Still, consider that everyone’s life eventually ends, and for many when that time comes it would be a blessing to choose it on their own terms.

        • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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          20 hours ago

          Should people have the right to die, and are there some situations where self euthanasia would be the best way to go? Sure.

          I very literally did consider it.

          • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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            16 hours ago

            I hear you expressing a lot of pain and frustration with the way society treats people who are elderly or disabled. And you’re right, the first answer shouldn’t be “kill yourself”. While your comment briefly mentioned the right to die, you called this method as ableist, which I think is probably an extension of that frustration rather than factual. Reading the article it seemed to me this organization is very much interested in people’s well being and reducing their suffering in a holistic way.

  • freeman@feddit.org
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    4 hours ago

    Several people already got arrested, as the capsule hasnt gone through the medical/clinical testing required and because the gas used, nitrogen, isnt allowed to be used in this way medically. A few days ago a Bundesrat (member of the federal executive) just called it illegal. Now we will see, if the (cantonal, then probably the federal) judicative branch says the same.

  • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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    20 hours ago

    Hmm yeah, if i happened to have a debilitating disease that require someone else constant care and i can’t be independent anymore, i’d also like to end it as well, as sad as it sound. Cool that Switzerland have option for that.

  • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.de
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    19 hours ago

    We need this in the US.

    Suicide sucks, but let people make an informed decision, explain their rationale to their loved ones (if they want), and take the dignified way out. Having sat in a house, tasting the blood in the air from when my father-in-law took his life with a gun to end the pain of his cancer, I don’t want anyone to have to go through that. It has been several years and our family still hasn’t healed from that trauma - mostly because of the stigma, and my mother-in-law’s request that we just tell everyone he died peacefully in his sleep.

    I would have much rather given him a hug, shook his hand and thank him for being such a guiding presence in my life… and then know that his last moments on earth truly were peaceful, not violent and messy.

  • magic_lobster_party@fedia.io
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    20 hours ago

    ‘The day you die is one of the most important days of your life’, Nitschke says

    That’s a chilling way to put it.

    It’s great she had the opportunity to end it on her own terms. I hope I also have the same option if I’m ever in a similar situation. Living in daily agony with no hope in sight doesn’t sound like a good life.

  • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    I think this is valuable work. I like that the operator can choose a setting and see nature when they go. That said, is there a reason this couldn’t be a mask instead of a chamber? Seems like that sort of separation from location is undesirable, plus it would be much simpler to manufacture.

    • Wrufieotnak@feddit.org
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      17 hours ago

      I would think a chamber is easier to accommodate different body sizes and forms, thereby making fitting unnecessary. Also I would assume it is easier/ less stressful on the operator, since they just lay down instead of having something strapped to their face.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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      19 hours ago

      Probably comfort. There could be complication if using non-airtight mask, as this method use nitrogen and our air is like 78% nitrogen, could actually take longer for one to go, and airtight mask is uncomfortable. Also they probably don’t need too many of these as demand probably won’t be there anytime soon, so manufacturing isn’t much of a concern.

      • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        Good point you and others make about airtightness.

        For the manufacturing, I’m primarily thinking about how assisted suicide is illegal in most countries, so the ability for anyone to make it, and to make something small, may have some value versus a large, hard to transport device.