this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
334 points (97.2% liked)

Futurology

1801 readers
122 users here now

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

In a first, an American woman used a suicide pod to take her own life. The process took place in Switzerland. It's done by pumping in only nitrogen gas, so the person will lose goes dizzy, loses consciousness and eventually dies. Enter futurama memes.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is nitrogen even expensive to get? It's absolutely everywhere, 70% of air is nitrogen

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not rare but it's a pain in the ass to purify and transport. Semiconductor place I used to work had a gigantic 1000 gallon tank of the stuff they had to get refilled every month. Had to have some specialty chemical tanker truck it out. Then there's problems with icing your whole setup once you actually have the stuff and try to use it. It's less of an immediate fiscal strain and more of an expensive infrastructure problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I see, thanks for the info. I had no idea

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I bet it's more expensive than a plastic bag.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Panicked animals produce lactic acid which spoils the meat. Even if you don't care about their welfare killing them cruelly is a bad idea.

Sidenote: Temple Grandin, a widely recognized livestock expert, compiled her research papers in a book I flipped through. What was interesting was that only a couple had to do with what she's famous for - designing animal handling equipment. Most of them are actually about the psychology of people working in the meat industry, with one specifically saying you shouldn't hire people who will be violent with the animals.