# What "instantaneous/painless" deaths are not instantaneous/painless? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 13, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-instantaneous-painless-deaths-are-not-instantaneous-painless/752063 "2016-04-13T04:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-instantaneous-painless-deaths-are-not-instantaneous-painless/752063/41 "2016-04-14T18:48:38Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > My first job out of university was at a research institute for the Meat Industry. The animal physiologists had studied slaughter processes for cattle and sheep. This included EEG monitoring and mild stimulation (producing a measurable EEG response) before and during slaughter both with and without stunning. > As I recall, the conclusion was that even without stunning, sensate response after the throat was cut was at most a couple of seconds, and there was no measurable pain response to the cut itself or to any subsequent stimulation. > So I think a proper throat cutting is pretty much “instantaneous”. > Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk That seems highly dubious. Think of it like this: have you ever accidentally cut yourself with a knife to any considerable depth? Did you feel the pain (and withdraw the knife) or did you by other means realise you were hurt before you actually felt anything? I can’t see any way of cutting throug skin and thick muscle tissue into the great blood vessels of the throat without causing pain. This is even more clear in the case of kosher slaughter where, I believe, the knife is not allowed to sink deeper in the throat of the animal than the width of the blade. Do they wield clumsy meat-cleavers to cut the throats of bulls at kosher slaughter-houses? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-instantaneous-painless-deaths-are-not-instantaneous-painless/752063/42 "2016-04-14T22:44:19Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > That seems highly dubious. Think of it like this: have you ever accidentally cut yourself with a knife to any considerable depth? Did you feel the pain (and withdraw the knife) or did you by other means realise you were hurt before you actually felt anything? If you have a VERY sharp knife, or a razor blade, it really is possible to cut yourself deeply and not realize it until you notice copious blood. I’ve done it. Most people who do a lot of cooking and use very sharp knives have done it. Surgeons have managed to accidentally slice themselves with scalpels and not notice immediately, sometimes not until after the surgery is done and they take off their gloves. That’s why for kosher slaughter the knife must be as sharp as possible. And really, it only has to go in far enough to slice open the major blood vessels of the necks after which death follows rapidly. Those blood vessels are really very deep. There’s no reason to go deeper, and by hitting bone you risk damaging/dulling the knife that must be kept razor sharp. ---
**Author:** ![duncs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@duncs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duncs)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-instantaneous-painless-deaths-are-not-instantaneous-painless/752063/43 "2016-04-15T10:34:22Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > I seem to recall reading stories of people passing out and/or dying in Nitrogen filled rooms and never really being aware anything was wrong. There are large nitrogen tanks where I work and, while out running one lunch time, the tanks were being filled from a tanker. Running past the tanks and through the nitrogen cloud that was produced while very out of breath, I passed out without knowing it. I woke up after the tanker driver had dragged me out of the way. So I a painless death by being in a Nitrogen filled room is very possible. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-instantaneous-painless-deaths-are-not-instantaneous-painless/752063/44 "2016-04-15T12:30:21Z")
> [@duncs](#): > > There are large nitrogen tanks where I work and, while out running one lunch time, the tanks were being filled from a tanker. Running past the tanks and through the nitrogen cloud that was produced while very out of breath, I passed out without knowing it. I woke up after the tanker driver had dragged me out of the way. So I a painless death by being in a Nitrogen filled room is very possible. Your body relies on a buildup of CO2 in the lungs to trigger an urge to breathe. Inert gases make it possible to painlessly reduce O2 concentrations to dangerous levels long before CO2 builds up and makes you gasp for breath. There are countless YouTube videos of people sucking the helium out of balloons and - after taking multiple drags and/or holding their breath - they become dizzy or even pass out. I’ve never passed out from this, but I have become very dizzy before. A few years ago there was a pool party in Mexico where organizers dumped a couple of gallons of liquid nitrogen into the pool. They achieved the desired fog effect (condensation of water vapor due to the low temps), but the huge volume of gaseous nitrogen at the surface of the pool incapacitated several people and put one guy in a coma. Some gases aren’t inert, but can still kill relatively painlessly. [Carbon monoxide poisoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning) can kill at 1600ppm, but it takes two unpleasant hours. However, if you increase the concentration to 12,800 ppm, you pass out after just a couple of breaths, even though there may still be plenty of oxygen available. The old trope of putting your head in a gas oven to die wasn’t about asphyxiation due to methane; decades ago, the gas used was [coal gas, AKA “town gas,”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas) and contained a lethal percentage of carbon monoxide. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-instantaneous-painless-deaths-are-not-instantaneous-painless/752063/45 "2016-04-19T18:18:20Z")
Some people are a bit blithe about painful deaths that are over in a short time. When in agony, a short time is a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-instantaneous-painless-deaths-are-not-instantaneous-painless/752063/46 "2016-04-19T20:25:39Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > The most common case that I am also the most skeptical :dubious: about is “dying in your sleep”. Relevant previous thread about this here - > **[Do people really die in their sleep?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554805)** > > Often people who pass away are said to die peacefully in their sleep. Does this really happen, or is it just what doctors tell the relatives to comfort them? I would have thought that most forms of death involve some pain, and that this would be... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-instantaneous-painless-deaths-are-not-instantaneous-painless/752063.md?page=2)