473
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen.

The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used.

Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. While proponents of the new method have theorized it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Mowcherie@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago

I get that it is 'humane,' but I get scared when I see humans developing and organizing highly efficient ways to exterminate humans, such as gas chambers.

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 11 points 1 year ago

Suffocation cannot possibly be considered “humane.”

The US frankly terrifies me these days.

[-] BrianTheFirst@kbin.social 31 points 1 year ago

Nitrogen asphyxiation does not equal suffocation. It displaces the oxygen in your lungs. Discomfort from suffocation is from build up of carbon dioxide, not lack of oxygen. For the brief period of time that you are still conscious, you can still exhale that carbon dioxide.

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 4 points 1 year ago

That seems unlikely. As @protist@mander.xyz explains further down the thread, it would likely lead to generalized pain and terror before seizures and death.

[-] BrianTheFirst@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

@protist is talking about nitrogen narcosis, which is a completely different thing.

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 1 points 1 year ago

No, they’re not. Read the post.

[-] BrianTheFirst@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

Yes, I did. Read my post.

They said:

Nitrogen narcosis happens to deep sea divers breathing compressed air, this would be straight up hypoxia, aka oxygen deprivation. Here’s what it does to your brain:

Nitrogen narcosis happens because when you are under pressure, like when underwater, gases are more easily dissolved. The nitrogen that is in your body dissolves into your tissues and basically anesthetizes you to death.

Nitrogen asphyxiation, like what we're talking about here, is when the nitrogen that you breathe displaces the oxygen in your lungs. This causes the oxygen levels in your blood to drop, which is what kills you.

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 1 points 1 year ago

You said:

@protist is talking about nitrogen narcosis

@protist@protist@mander.xyz said:

...this would be straight up hypoxia, aka oxygen deprivation

I have a scuba certification. I know what nitrogen narcosis is. @protist is clearly not talking about nitrogen narcosis. They're describing what would actually happen in the case of being forced to breathe pure nitrogen, which is straight up suffocation.

suffocation
noun
death caused by not having enough oxygen, or the act of killing someone by not allowing them to have enough oxygen
--Cambridge Dictionary

[-] BrianTheFirst@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

Captain, in my comment that you just replied to, I quoted them literally saying that they are talking about nitrogen narcosis.

[-] CTdummy@artemis.camp 2 points 1 year ago

In protist comment the “this…” after nitrogen narcosis is meant to indicate a change of topic to the OP. As in “X is boring this is pod racing. “ it’s ambiguous and a semi colon could have probably avoided this confusion. Or even just “what op is describing is”. Not that I think his comment is necessarily correct.

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 1 points 1 year ago

I give up. They very clearly said exactly the opposite, but if that’s where your reading level is, then you do you.

[-] bemenaker@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You are correct that I forgot that you have to be under pressure for narcosis. I have read about death from nitrogen asphyxiation and thought it induced it also. I am slonscuba certified and while I haven't been narcd, my dad has. You still get light headed and dizzy during asphyxiation from nitrogen due to lack of oxygen, which is part of being narcd but being narcd is worse because of absorbtion into the brain. Since.you are still breathing out CO2 you don't feel the panicking you're suffocating feeling, but it still takes 4 minutes to kill you. Though you will unconscious after a minute most likely.

So yes, you are correct I forgot that it takes pressure to truly get narcd but asphyxiation does still bring on similar feelings itself.

[-] neuropean@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Yes he is. Nitrogen narcosis is from breathing compressed air with a high nitrogen blend. That’s why you need trimix with helium beyond a couple hundred feet. Otherwise you end up like my buddy trying to give fish your regulator.

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 1 points 1 year ago

Read. the. damn. post!

That guy is misinformed. He is talking about hypoxia which is what people commonly think of when dying from lack of oxygen, think of drowning. Hypoxia triggers the alarms in your body that cause the fear and pain you associate with suffocating due to the build up of co2 in the body.

With inert gases like nitrogen however it is different. Check out this wiki article, in the process drop down tab is provides a pretty good explanation on the matter

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation

[-] bemenaker@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not misinformed, I forgot it takes.pressure.to.get narcd, but asphyxiation does cause some of the same feelings. Narcd is nitrogen asphyxiation, but it has other effects, and the feeling is more intense before reaching total asphyxiation, and therefore it is easier to recover from. It takes the pressure for the nitrogen to bind to the oxygen receptors.

load more comments (21 replies)
load more comments (23 replies)
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
473 points (100.0% liked)

News

22903 readers
3033 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS