# Euthanasia Roller Coaster **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 27, 2023, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161 "2023-06-27T04:11:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/1 "2023-06-27T04:11:14Z")
While we are discussing dramatic ways to die, I present this, the Final Roller Coaster: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia\_Coaster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_Coaster) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/2 "2023-06-27T04:32:41Z")
I don’t see how it would remotely work. 10 gees for 60 seconds? Your tissues have more than enough O2 in them to survive that without damage. Maybe if it whipped you around so that your neck snapped after you go unconscious it would work, but they seem to think it works on the principle of oxygen deprivation. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/3 "2023-06-27T05:35:58Z")
Yeah, haven’t there been people revived from situations where they had gone 2-4 minutes with no oxygen to their brain and still survived? Albeit with some brain damage. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/4 "2023-06-27T06:50:36Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Maybe if it whipped you around so that your neck snapped after you go unconscious it would work […] Yeah. Neck-snapping for the win. The Wiki article mentions that after the nutty loop-de-loops it ends with a “sharp right turn”. The designer wasn’t quoted about that feature but it occurred to me it’d make a splendid neck-breaking device if the speed and angle of the turn were sufficient. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/5 "2023-06-27T07:12:23Z")
Mitchell and Webb had some [thoughts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zx72ilxorU) on the matter. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/6 "2023-06-27T13:09:49Z")
The first I heard of this concept was on the recent show Mrs. Davis on Peacock. Mrs. solost is a huge coaster junkie. When she saw it she said "heck yeah, that looks like a great way to go out! 😄 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/7 "2023-06-27T13:25:42Z")
For a dramatic death I’ll return to an old favorite. I will put on a long coat, wrap my body with explosives, climb out on a window ledge in NYC and wait for a crowd of people to start shouting “Jump!” and then jump out over the crowd and detonate the explosives in the air so they all get covered in flaming hot smithereens of me. I’ll probably go for something less dramatic, but I’m keeping that in reserve in case I’m in a bad but playful mood that day. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/8 "2023-06-27T16:21:16Z")
I was thinking it sounds like the roller coaster in _How High We Go in the Dark_ by Sequoia Nagamatsu, and I see in the Wikipedia article that it was indeed the basis for the one in the book. That one was specifically for children terminally ill with a global plague. Their last days were spent having fun at an amusement park, with the euthanasia coaster their final ride. > At the halfway mark, I gazed at the cars, now at their tipping point, and closed my eyes right as the roar of the tracks and the joy screams of the children grew to deafening levels and the train plummeted back to earth, through the first inversion, pulling ten Gs — and then the screams stopped. Brain function ceased in the second inversion; their little hearts quit pumping in the third. Wonderful book, but brutal. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/9 "2023-06-27T16:36:50Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I don’t see how it would remotely work. 10 gees for 60 seconds? Your tissues have more than enough O2 in them to survive that without damage. Maybe if it whipped you around so that your neck snapped after you go unconscious it would work, but they seem to think it works on the principle of oxygen deprivation. The record for holding your breath is 24 minutes and 37 seconds so certainly we can survive for a long time with just what we’ve already inhaled. But maybe the idea is that with 10G of downwards force on your skull, most of the oxygenated blood will be forced out and become unavailable? I wouldn’t want to test it, personally. > [@Velocity](#): > > Yeah, haven’t there been people revived from situations where they had gone 2-4 minutes with no oxygen to their brain and still survived? Albeit with some brain damage. I think we’d need to track down exactly how they were timing that. If they’re just talking about the heart stopping, that might still leave well-oxygenated blood inside the brain. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/10 "2023-06-27T16:40:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’ll probably go for something less dramatic, but I’m keeping that in reserve in case I’m in a bad but playful mood that day. This is my new favorite! ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/11 "2023-06-27T17:03:20Z")
There is one dramatic final coaster ride that has a video. It’s my current favorite video, LOL! [https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/14iuc37/what\_is\_that/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/14iuc37/what_is_that/) ---
**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:** [June 27, 2023, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/12 "2023-06-27T18:00:32Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The record for holding your breath is 24 minutes and 37 seconds so certainly we can survive for a long time with just what we’ve already inhaled. > **[The science of holding your breath: How could Kate Winslet stay underwater...](https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-holding-your-breath-how-could-kate-winslet-stay-underwater-for-over-7-minutes-in-avatar-2-198381)** > > Kate Winslet held her breath for an impressive 7 minutes and 15 seconds while filming, but the current world record is over 24 minutes. Here’s how people learn to stay underwater for extended periods of time. > In respect to the breath hold of almost 25 minutes by Šobat, it was accomplished by pre-breathing 100 per cent oxygen prior to holding the breath. > > The world record for a [non-oxygen-assisted breath hold](https://www.aidainternational.org/WorldRecords/History) is 11:35 minutes\* by Stéphane Mifsud. For women it is 9:02 minutes, held by Natalia Molchanova. These are people who have trained for many years, and are the [top professional apneists](https://www.aidainternational.org/) (apnea means temporarily stopped breathing). ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euthanasia-roller-coaster/986161/13 "2023-06-27T21:58:51Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > But maybe the idea is that with 10G of downwards force on your skull, most of the oxygenated blood will be forced out and become unavailable? Even if some of the blood is forced out, the tissues will still have dissolved O2. Highly fit individuals can take 30 seconds at 9 gees without even going unconscious: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_0nbRYIBVDQ/hqdefault.jpg "The G-Monster is back - more 30 seconds at 9g!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0nbRYIBVDQ&t=566) Ok, that’s not an average person, but the point is that he’s obviously very far from dying. Maybe an ordinary person would black out before then, but it’s still going to take a while before they die, or even experience brain damage. Most sources seem to say that brain damage starts occurring 2-4 minutes after cardiac arrest. And this probably isn’t quite as bad as that. Especially if, as one might expect, a person naturally hyperventilates in advance of a coaster ride that is supposed to kill them…