# Is there a quick and painless death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2001, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530 "2001-04-27T12:48:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/41 "2012-06-03T18:00:45Z")
Carbon monoxide poisoning produces extremely quick and painless death if the concentration is high enough. Above 1% [concentration](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning) it can render you unconscious after a few breaths, and dead within minutes. It’s colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-irritating, and the main symptom is feeling sleepy. The worst symptom it could produce is a headache or dizziness. Part of the reason it’s so dangerous. Not very easy to get a hold of though - car exhausts used to contain a lot of it - hence the method of suicide by attaching a pipe to the exhaust and putting it through the window of the car - but they’ve been cleaned up a fair bit nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/42 "2012-06-03T18:04:14Z")
Is there a painless way to kill a zombie thread …? Nitrogen seems to be the best way to go. CO2 is what causes the horrible gasping/suffocating sensation–not lack of oxygen. So if you are immersed in a non-oxygen, non-CO2-containing environment, you just very quickly pass out. End of story. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/43 "2012-06-03T18:06:38Z")
A Star Trek style transporter, set to maximum dispersion. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/44 "2012-06-03T20:33:49Z")
What about the classical Roman way, sitting in a warm bath and bleeding out? Seems like other than the initial pain of cutting into the body it would be relatively painless. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/45 "2012-06-03T22:04:20Z")
> [@John49](#): > > Actually only one had a blank round. This was to assure the rifleman that any one of them may not have killed the prisoner. Thereby possibly leaving them with a clear conscience. There was no shortage of volunteers for the firing squad. I doubt conscience was any real issue… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/46 "2012-06-04T03:48:21Z")
Okay, since this deathly zombie thread lives, I may as well contribute something. I saw a film once, many years ago, about hypoxia, the slow (but apparently painless) death that can come to you from lack of oxygen. The intended audience was student pilots (which I was at the time), so that we should understand the importance of having supplemental oxygen at high altitudes. The film included a demo! In an unpressurized plane at medium-high altitude, a “researcher” and a “subject” sat at a table. The researcher wore an oxygen mask, and had another mask close at hand. The researcher gave the subject some task to accomplish – brushing his teeth, IIRC. Then the plane went higher. As the air got thinner, the subject began to get confused and lose focus and concentration – but never showed signs of actual distress. He stopped brushing his teeth and started doing something else. Eventually he passed out, or nearly so – at which point the researcher put the other mask on his face. As the subject came to again, he suddenly resumed the original task of brushing his teeth, and had no recollection of the interruption! The period of time still conscious with insufficient oxygen was described as being somewhat euphoric, actually (although I don’t know if the subject would have remembered even that, though, so I don’t know how anyone knows that). As noted in posts above, it is the accumulation of CO[sub]2[/sub] in the blood that creates the suffocating feelings. Absent that, but also absent oxygen, one just quietly and painlessly passes out, and perhaps very quickly too. Thus, it is argued that immersing the subject in any oxygen-free atmosphere (e.g., nitrogen or helium) will allow the subject to exhale all that nasty CO[sub]2[/sub], while getting no O[sub]2[/sub] in return, thus to die peacefully. This, then, is the theory behind all those “death-kits” and such, that involve the helium tank, rubber tubing, and plastic bag over the head. My contribution to this thread by this post is the story of that film I saw. This is NOT to be confused with poisoning by actual _noxious ghastly gasses_ that kill the subject with much gasping, choking, eyes bugging out, kicking and flopping on the floor (as the Gas Chamber allegedly did, on occasion, when the subject somehow got loose of his restraints and the curtain in front of his face so the studio audience could see it all). Consider chlorine gas, for example. I don’t know how that works, but here is what I assume: In the moist tissue of the lungs, it reacts with the moisture there, producing hydrochloric acid (HCl) in solution, in turn reducing the interior of the lungs to blood pudding, whereupon the subject drowns. Descriptions I’ve read of cyanide gas are different but equally gruesome. It’s not like you’ve seen in all those spy movies. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/47 "2012-06-04T04:03:55Z")
zombie or no > [@Tranquilis](#): > > Note: Eddison championed the use of AC current in executions, as he could then use that as a maketing ploy against Tesla in the AC/DC wars (AC current is a killer… Use DC current instead: It’s safe… Harrumph.). > [@RickJay](#): > > He used this as a marketing ploy against George Westinghouse, mostly. I know Tesla’s the rock star of science on the Internet, and he did in fact invest some of the technology behind AC, but the much more boring George Westinghouse was the primary guy Edison was at war with here. > > In fact, Edison went so far as to suggest execution in the electric chair should be called “Westinghousing.” lethal injection chemicals are being reevaluated in some states. propofol is being suggested. if used they may refer to that process as Jacksoning. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/48 "2012-06-04T04:07:33Z")
Deep sea diving may be the way. If you could combine increasing nitrogen narcosis with a decreasing amount of oxygen at the same time. Perhaps a rebreather system where the breathing loop is only feed pure nitrogen (with maybe some helium mixed in) as you sink deeper and deeper. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/49 "2012-06-04T04:33:53Z")
Freezing might be better. I’ve read a few books on climbers summiting Mt. Everest, including “Into Thin Air”. When you freeze to death you pretty much fall asleep, in relative comfort. It’s not fast but it’s definitely painless. NItrogen narcosis sounds painful. The mega bomb might be my other preferred way, it’s over so quickly your mind has no way of getting any pain messages. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/50 "2012-06-04T05:26:50Z")
> [@echo7tango](#): > > NItrogen narcosis sounds painful. The mega bomb might be my other preferred way, it’s over so quickly your mind has no way of getting any pain messages. Why do you say that? I’ve never read/heard nitrogen narcosis as being anything other than nice. Though you do bring up the mega bomb thingy. I’ve always said the best way to die was being a couple hundred feet away from an atomic bomb. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/51 "2012-06-04T07:16:09Z")
> [@MacCat](#): > > There was no shortage of volunteers for the firing squad. I doubt conscience was any real issue… If not the sensitivities of the shooters, then why? To deprive them of bragging rights? It seems a quaint custom. It would be funny if the same method was applied to other execution techniques: five guys pulling levers for the electric chair or two doctors depressing plungers, one fake, for lethal injection. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/52 "2012-06-04T07:44:30Z")
> [@echo7tango](#): > > NItrogen narcosis sounds painful. > [@billfish678](#): > > Why do you say that? I’ve never read/heard nitrogen narcosis as being anything other than nice. They are probably confusing nitrogen narcosis with [“the bends”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_sickness). ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/53 "2012-06-04T08:03:37Z")
Indeed, hypoxia seems to be the best way to go. Why isn’t this used as a method of execution? It seems pretty cheap too. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/54 "2012-06-04T11:27:05Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Why do you say that? I’ve never read/heard nitrogen narcosis as being anything other than nice. Though you do bring up the mega bomb thingy. I’ve always said the best way to die was being a couple hundred feet away from an atomic bomb. I’m no diver. That impression comes from the 1970s TV show, Barrier Reef, I watched as a kid growing up. A great source for factual information - haha. So, there’s no pain with the bends, then? I remember seeing someone with the bends writhing in pain on deck as others frantically tried to save him. I guess that was total BS fabricated for TV and impressionable young kids like me. Doing a little searching now, and it doesn’t look there’s any pain incolved. But really, there’s no pain as the N2 bubbles out of your blood? It sure seems like it would hurt, but that’s just a guess on my part. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/55 "2012-06-04T11:31:47Z")
> [@echo7tango](#): > > But really, there’s no pain as the N2 bubbles out of your blood? It sure seems like it would hurt, but that’s just a guess on my part. That’s not nitrogen narcosis, that is the bends. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530/56 "2012-06-04T12:41:09Z")
Okay. Looks like we got the bends vs nitrogen narcosis thing straightened out. Narcosis is nice mkay? Oh, and somebody upthread mention having a pet euthanized. I’d had more than my share of that and damn is it FAST. Like, in how did the blood flow have enough time to get the stuff anywhere to do anything? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-quick-and-painless-death/63530.md?page=2)