this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
120 points (99.2% liked)

News

22939 readers
4497 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
 

Alan Miller shook and trembled on gurney after becoming second person to be executed by controversial technique

Alabama has carried out the second execution in the US using the controversial method of nitrogen gas, an experimental technique for humans that veterinarians have deemed unacceptable in the US and Europe for the euthanasia of most animals.

Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead on Thursday evening at a south Alabama prison. The lethal method involves being strapped to a gurney, where a respirator mask is applied to the face and pure nitrogen piped in. The resulting oxygen deprivation will cause death by asphyxia.

Miller shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes with his body at times pulling against the restraints, followed by about six minutes of gasping breathing, according to the Associated Press.

Miller’s death is the latest in an extraordinary week in the US in which five condemned men in five states are set to be killed over six days. Three prisoners have already been executed – on Friday South Carolina killed Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah in its first execution in 13 years, then on Tuesday Texas killed Travis Mullis and Missouri put to death Marcellus Williams.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] bastion@feddit.nl 24 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

No. With the notable exception of rodents, animals generally can't detect oxygen deficiency directly (though they may get loopy).

Nitrogen asphyxiation basically makes you loopy, then unconscious, then dead. It's experientially equivalent to exposure to normal air at extremely high altitudes. Military pilots are often exposed to this (in a controlled manner) precisely because it's so hard to recognize, and doesn't induce fear. Like, epic levels of hard to recognize, as in "Hey Bob, it's time to put your mask back on to keep you from dying!" Bob: snickers and clearly thinks this is a great joke, until the person straps his mask back on, and he realizes how serious the situation is

You can make a trough for a (non-starved) pig that constantly releases nitrogen gas (which it breathes as it's eating). The pig puts his head in the trough to eat, then passes out from lack of oxygen (this pulling it's snout out of the trough), then is like "what was I doing? Oh look, food.." ..and goes right back to it, passing out again.

This is completely different from the reaction to carbon dioxide asphyxiation, which the body has sensors for, and induces all kinds of panic. Try the same trough experiment with a pig using carbon dioxide, and it will stay the fuck away from the evil trough of death.

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 23 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

You can watch Destin from Smarter Every Day almost die on camera* due to hypoxia.
I'll go looking for the link.

Obviously watch the whole video but start at 5:27 (ends around 7:30) for the moment. Watching this freaks me the fuck out every time.
YT Link

*He was in a safe environment

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 15 points 7 hours ago

Also so many instances of cave divers going loopy then dead in a matter of minutes. It's astounding that it's so easy to accidentally die from nitrogen but we just can't seem to get the hang of not torturing people to death.

[–] themadcodger@kbin.earth 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Holy shit. I assumed we would have minutes not seconds if a plane depressurized. I understand what that would freak you the fuck out.

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 9 points 5 hours ago

That's not what gets me, its watching him degrade and then not have the presence of mind to simply reenable his oxygen.
That triggers me super hard for some reason

[–] natecox@programming.dev 13 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Multiple reports from observers of this execution method: it’s horrible, they thrash around on the gurney and seem to suffer greatly

This guy: nuh uh.

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 11 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

They're not doing it correctly. The person needs to be cooperative and able to follow instructions, and they need to be using a specific type of mask that vents their breath with the carbon dioxide out.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 12 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, good luck getting someone to be cooperative and calmly following instructions while being murdered by the government in front of an audience 🙄

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Precisely. Wonderful if you've got highly painful terminal cancer though!

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

True. Pretty fucked up how the proponents of state murder can't see how those are fundamentally different situations.

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 hours ago

That's also why I'm being so active in this comments section; I don't want people reading about compassionate euthenasia thinking "wait isn't that how they torture people to death?" because it's not unless you're basically trying to use it that way. I've actually been briefly trained on what to do in an inert gas leak in some of the radiology safety modules for work because some of the imaging machinery uses inert gas and they literally tell you it's super easy to accidentally die that way because by the time you've even noticed you're almost dead.