As sad as this topic is, this is a much better way to go than a prolonged miserable painful death where you suffer the last months of a terminal disease.
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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Terminal or not this is a human way of accepting death.
Imagine your an old 70+/ 80+ couple that are ready to go but together. You can hold your spouses hand, spend time with family, and say your final goodbyes while you are still mentally functioning. Not a burden on anyone or heart broken after losing your partner.
To me, this is a great alternative to dying alone in a cold "retirement home." I know it is not for everyone but, my partner and I have talked about as an option.
I would rather do this than suffer through dementia, if it comes to that.
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Its such a difficult topic to write about. You shouldnt glorify it but you also have to respect peoples wish to die. Putting that sort of sincerity into text is hard imo, but the article did a good job at it. Weird that they arrested the photographer tho :/
I cant imagine a much more peaceful way to go under her conditions.
I found it became a lot easier after my dad took almost three days to 'die' after he could no longer really live with his lung, throat and shoulder cancer. I get that dieing sucks ass, but if the alternative is dieing really really slowly, assisted death is really beautiful. Too bad our doctor had moral objections, which is fair for them, but it wasn't to us. We did not have this nitrogen capsule, we just had to wait it out and let our loved one gurgle themselves to death.
My grandmother chose to spend the last of her time “at home, with dignity.”
We (mom and siblings) lived with her, and got to experience the whole thing. I will spare you the details, but it was not dignified.
I will never put another person through that in my life. Not even hospital staff. If I ever receive a terminal diagnosis, I’m immediately going to begin planning my exit - likely in a similar fashion as above.
I am very thankful for the hospice nurses assigned to my Grandma, who was doomed to a similar fate to your Father, had they not mercifully increased her dosage of pain meds until she passed.
It's really sad that there aren't better end of life options, and we need to rely on the Mercy of whatever medical staff are assigned to care for us at the end of our lives. At least here in the US.
My condolences to you and may your father rest peacefully.
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On a pet forum people regularly talk about (and suggest to others) how they euthanize their old / sick rodents at home using carbon-dioxide unlike nitrogen like this capsule uses. I looked into what's the difference and it turns out inhaling pure carbon-dioxide instantly causes panic and the sense of suffocation and it's a horrible way to die. They were even able to cause an panic attack on a person physically uncapable of experiencing fear. There are videos online about killing pigs like this and it's not a pretty sight. Suffice to say I no longer take advice from those people.
Ya CO2 is basically the feeling of normal suffocation. Might as well hold a plastic bag over their head.
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That's horrible. Why would anyone think that co2 is in any way an acceptable way of taking a life?
I guess it's slightly more efficient than just putting your pets in an airtight container. But still pretty awful.
Because it's cheap and effective. Why splurge on a bottle of compressed nitrogen or argon when all it does is forgo suffering and cost more? Think of the bottom line.
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Yeah your drive to breathe is based on CO2 in the blood not O2 level. The higher the CO2 the more you feel the need to breathe. That's why the capsule uses nitrogen. You don't respond to the lack of O2 and can still flush the CO2 from your system.
Co2 reaction is highly, highly concentration-dependent. Rodent euthanasia ideally starts around 20% which makes them cranky and sleepy, they go to sleep, then concentration is upped to around 80% and they die very quickly. Yes, they feel bad when they go to sleep, but it is a mild bad and it's all over quickly. Rodent euthanasia horror stories are about getting the concentration wrong, not the co2 itself.
Nitrogen - as long as the flow is strong enough to remove exhaled co2 - won't make anyone cranky, but it takes longer, and the longer it takes the higher the risk of something going wrong with the setup. So, tradeoffs.
There are more and more vets that are using firearms now on farms to euthanize because the drugs they use also cause panic. A 9mm round to the brain instantly incapacitates the animal, they don't even know what happens. It's the kindest way to euthanize your animals, anyone telling you the cocktail of drugs or co2 is more humane is full of shit.
Not to mention that the drug they use, euthanyl is very bad to get into the ecosystem. If you have a pet euthanized then you can't take it home and bury it because the chemical will poison anything that happens to dig up the body and eat it.
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Physical trauma makes sense for large animals. If you have 50 lab rats that you need to euthanize, a gassing setup can make more sense than individually whacking them.
Completely agreed, but at that point, just use nitrogen, it's insane that this isn't the standard practice.
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Awesome! Good for her. She died on her terms, with dignity. This is how we should see end of life. I want something like this available to me if I get a terminal illness or just age to somewhere past my 70s and wish to die on my terms.
Death with dignity should be the same human right as any other freedom.
Hmm yeah, if i happened to have a debilitating disease that require someone else constant care and i can't be independent anymore, i'd also like to end it as well, as sad as it sound. Cool that Switzerland have option for that.
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The future is here.
Re-brand it as a liberty booth and sell it as an improvement to the economy and less social services usage to see them pop up all over the US.
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Several people already got arrested, as the capsule hasnt gone through the medical/clinical testing required and because the gas used, nitrogen, isnt allowed to be used in this way medically. A few days ago a Bundesrat (member of the federal executive) just called it illegal. Now we will see, if the (cantonal, then probably the federal) judicative branch says the same.
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Ok. I just read this as a way to die in an Andy Weir novel
The book also makes a pretty good case for heroin as a suicide method. I was swayed.
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We need this in the US.
Suicide sucks, but let people make an informed decision, explain their rationale to their loved ones (if they want), and take the dignified way out. Having sat in a house, tasting the blood in the air from when my father-in-law took his life with a gun to end the pain of his cancer, I don't want anyone to have to go through that. It has been several years and our family still hasn't healed from that trauma - mostly because of the stigma, and my mother-in-law's request that we just tell everyone he died peacefully in his sleep.
I would have much rather given him a hug, shook his hand and thank him for being such a guiding presence in my life... and then know that his last moments on earth truly were peaceful, not violent and messy.
‘The day you die is one of the most important days of your life’, Nitschke says
That’s a chilling way to put it.
It’s great she had the opportunity to end it on her own terms. I hope I also have the same option if I’m ever in a similar situation. Living in daily agony with no hope in sight doesn’t sound like a good life.
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