# Best way to commit suicide and preserve organs for donation? (do not need answer fast, heh) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855 "2011-03-24T16:34:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/41 "2011-03-27T16:49:18Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > I’m no surgeon, but it seems if one went deep enough - totally severing arteries and cutting into the esophagus, there’s no way to save the patient in time. Again, it’d be physically and psychologically difficult but, short of a guillotine, it offers a clean death for organ harvesting – plus it’s portable. I’m not one either, but there’s the “if” factor. Of course, you’d have to aim properly when shooting yourself in the head/mouth too. Slip up on that and you might not be able to do a decent second shot, and find yourself terribly mangled/a vegetable. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/42 "2011-03-28T11:38:05Z")
> [@jonesj2205](#): > > The man actually asked House what the best method was. If I recall House told him to take some aspirin and then hang himself. Suffocating being preferred over neck snapping, if I recall correctly. > They did not show it however, Wilson established an alibi for them while House waited in the hall. I just watched this episode. I think the aspirin helped by thinning the blood to make whichever organ they needed last longer. ---
**Author:** ![curiousglenn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@curiousglenn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curiousglenn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/43 "2011-08-27T10:49:19Z")
**Ok, i’m gonna jump in here since everyones suggestion is poorly though out. No offence. Any criticism is open since I might of overlooked simple things.** **Overview** Basically what you’re gonna do is sit inside a body sized freezer covered in ice with salt and replace the oxygen you’re breathing with inert gas (Death by asphyxiation). This is relatively painless and you dont feel the feeling you get when you hold your breath and gasp for air. You are not poisoning your organs since you’re using Nitrogen. Its also easy for your family to say you died of natural causes if you have insurance since its impossible for autopsy to find out you inhaled too much nitrogen. Another added benefit is the sense of euphoria before death (anytime you starve your brain of oxygen you get euphoric). **Benefits from this method** - Euphoria right before death - Painless - Your organs remain undamaged **What you will need:** - Be nude - Your Medical Records + Declared an Organ Donor (Put them inside your pocket) - A Credit Card (to buy your supplies (You’ll be dead so who cares) - Bottled Inert Gas, fittings, hose etc… (Nitrogin works best) - Facemask (from home depot or rona) - Lots of Ice and a large Freezer (to put your self in) - Lots of salt (to preserve your skin) - A cellphone (to call the hospital) \*\*How much it will cost you: \*\* $300-800 (use your credit card) **What to do:** [ol] [li] Buy the requires supplies above[/li][li]\*\* You’re going to want to find a way to be able to phone and speak to the ambulance while you breath this stuff in (you have approximately 15-60 seconds to say what ever you want)[/li][li] Set the tank pressure to 7-10 psi for optimum nitrogen intake[/li][li] Assemble your device as necessary and prevent any leakage[/li][li] Dump some ice into your freezer (20% of the amount you bought)[/li][li] Sit inside the freezer[/li][li] Pour salt on your body **(you need to be naked for this)**[/li][li] Dump all of the ice you bought on top of you except your head[/li][li] Pour salt on top of the ice lots and lots of salt use atleast 6 bags[/li][li] Call for an ambulance & wait for a ring before proceeding (do make sure to tell them where you are)[/li][li] Once your have them talking turn the device on and start breathing some nitrogen[/li][li] Wait a while[/li][li] Death…[/li][/ol] **Interesting fact** Pilots who accidentally fly thier unpressurized cabins at altitudes above 10,000ft are subjected to the same effect you’re about to perform. That is becuase nitrogen is lighter than oxigine and therefore a much larger concentration above that altitude. Also, its not the fact that the air is so thin that makes it so hard to breath at that altitude, its the fact that pressure above that altitude is so low that air has trouble forcing it self to go into your lungs. I hope this helps… see you in the next life ---
**Author:** ![curiousglenn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@curiousglenn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curiousglenn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/44 "2011-08-27T10:55:49Z")
doubleposted (delete this) ---
**Author:** ![ecseas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ecseas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ecseas)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/45 "2011-08-27T11:31:51Z")
> [@curiousglenn](#): > > **Ok, i’m gonna jump in here since everyones suggestion is poorly though out. No offence. Any criticism is open since I might of overlooked simple things.** > > **Overview** > Basically what you’re gonna do is sit inside a body sized freezer covered in ice with salt and replace the oxygen you’re breathing with inert gas (Death by asphyxiation). This is relatively painless and you dont feel the feeling you get when you hold your breath and gasp for air. You are not poisoning your organs since you’re using Nitrogen. Its also easy for your family to say you died of natural causes if you have insurance since its impossible for autopsy to find out you inhaled too much nitrogen. Another added benefit is the sense of euphoria before death (anytime you starve your brain of oxygen you get euphoric). > > snip. I doubt this would be painless. Put your hand in a glass ice and water, wait five minutes. Unless I’m strange or something, it starts to hurt. Salt wouldn’t preserve your skin. Salt would help keep the ice frozen. You would get frost bite. Your organs would freeze. Unfreezing them will cause them to break down. They would not say you died of natural causes. Natural is not sitting in a freezer, pumping yourself full of gas, freezing yourself. I’d say drowning would be the best way. I may be overlooking something, but the only thing that’d effect would be your brain, right? ---
**Author:** ![Bri2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/48db29/32.png) [@Bri2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bri2k)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/46 "2011-08-27T12:13:17Z")
How are you going to put anything in your pockets if you’re nude? On second thought, don’t answer that. I sure wouldn’t want to be the person who has to retrieve them though. Bri2k ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/47 "2011-08-27T12:19:57Z")
That’s not even a particularly good way of preserving your own body _for later use as food_. And a completely ineffective one for preserving the organs for transplantation. Nothing will be reusable of you freeze it in a domestic freezer. ---
**Author:** ![Bri2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/48db29/32.png) [@Bri2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bri2k)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/48 "2011-08-27T12:30:53Z")
Not to mention that zombies aren’t ideal candidates for organ donation anyway… Bri2k ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/49 "2011-08-27T12:31:17Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > ER lobby-gunshot to the head. Use a suppressor so you don’t disturb others. I was thinking the same thing about the gunshot, someone could be trying to take a nap. It could even be children, children plagued with insomnia who’ve just barely managed to get to sleep . In god’s name think of the kids for heaven’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/50 "2011-08-27T15:17:35Z")
> [@curiousglenn](#): > > That is becuase nitrogen is lighter than oxigine and therefore a much larger concentration above that altitude. Where are you getting this from? Relative atmospheric concentrations of the various gas species (save for water vapour, which mainly sticks around the troposphere) are relatively constant until you get past 100km. Up to that point the atmospheric gasses are sufficiently well mixed that gravitational effects are inconsequential. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/51 "2011-08-27T16:19:10Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > What about cutting your own throat? That’d preserve the corneas that might be destroyed or rendered unusable by a gunshot to the head, wouldn’t it? Or femoral artery? From my extensive medical knowledge gained through years of TV watching that happens pretty fast, no? Still quite messy, I’m sure. My participation in this thread does not indicate advocacy of the intention described in the OP. Everyone stay alive, please. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/52 "2011-08-28T11:44:42Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > As if the sight of someone shooting themself in the head was not disturbing enough 😛 > > Self-guillotining would be slightly better–it would preserve the corneas, too. Geez, that’s morbid, isn’t it? I agree with Duke insofar as preserving the most organs. But need to say that Dr. Kervorkian did not kill people. He helped them die, and there’s a huge difference. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/53 "2011-08-28T22:08:28Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Where are you getting this from? I’m guessing from the same place where he got the notion that your death will be ruled ‘natural causes’ after your body is found in an ice-filled freezer that’s been hooked up to an empty tank of nitrogen. But not from the place where he got the notion that you can stuff items in your pockets while buck naked: he obviously got that notion from Robinson Crusoe\*. \*At one point in Dafoe’s novel, Crusoe strips and swims to his wrecked ship to salvage some goods. Once on board, ‘I went to the bread room and filled my pockets with biscuits.’ ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/54 "2011-08-28T22:39:15Z")
Motorcycle in the rain without a helmet? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/55 "2011-08-28T22:44:04Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Motorcycle in the rain without a helmet? You’ve been listening to Billy Joel again, haven’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Berdusk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Berdusk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berdusk)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/56 "2013-01-26T15:40:25Z")
I’m surprised no one has mentioned carbon monoxide poisoning. I know that if you get a high enough concentration, you pass out after two minutes and are dead within three. But how does that affect organ donation? Obviously you can’t do this right outside of a hospital, but it’s quick acting enough that you might be able to dial 911 (and have a DNR order filled out on you) so they can retrieve your remains quickly but not quickly enough to prevent you from dying. So, that leaves only the question: How does carbon monoxide affect your organs for the purposes of transplantation? ---
**Author:** ![akennett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@akennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akennett)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/57 "2013-01-26T16:32:35Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > You’ve been listening to Billy Joel again, haven’t you? Obviously not, Billy made it home alive. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/58 "2013-01-26T18:46:51Z")
> [@Berdusk](#): > > I’m surprised no one has mentioned carbon monoxide poisoning. I know that if you get a high enough concentration, you pass out after two minutes and are dead within three. > > But how does that affect organ donation? > > Obviously you can’t do this right outside of a hospital, but it’s quick acting enough that you might be able to dial 911 (and have a DNR order filled out on you) so they can retrieve your remains quickly but not quickly enough to prevent you from dying. > > So, that leaves only the question: How does carbon monoxide affect your organs for the purposes of transplantation? If you’re dead when EMS arrives you aren’t going to be a donor. ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/59 "2013-01-27T01:52:31Z")
I know of one case in which a young man was in an accident that left him quadriplegic and dependent on mechanical ventilation. He decided he did not want to live like that so got everything in order for donation, including speaking with the surgeons/transplant services, making everything kosher with the hospital ethics committee, and had the vent turned off. Depending on your perspective this may not fit the premise of the OP since this was withdrawal of life sustaining treatment rather than true suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-commit-suicide-and-preserve-organs-for-donation-do-not-need-answer-fast-heh/575855/60 "2013-01-27T17:47:53Z")
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