By Tom McNichol
This new proposed method, (click here) known as nitrogen asphyxiation, seals the condemned in an airtight chamber pumped full of nitrogen gas, causing death by a lack of oxygen. Nitrogen gas has yet to be put to the test as a method of capital punishment—no country currently uses it for state-sanctioned executions. But people do die accidentally of nitrogen asphyxiation, and usually never know what hit them. (It’s even possible that death by nitrogen gas is mildly euphoric.
Any other MECHANISM of killing someone in the death penalty OCCUPIES the space in which death is guaranteed. Nitrogen is also a matter of metabolism. Death by metabolism is not a legitimate method of a guaranteed death. It might make interesting dialogue, but, it is cruel and unusual.
Next thing you know they'll be providing the last meal with salmonella. Let's see. Hm. How about hydrogen? All anyone would have to do is light a match.
Automatic cremation. No fuss, no mess, purely end of life.
The bends, also known as decompression sickness (DCS) or Caisson disease occurs in scuba divers or high altitude or aerospace events when dissolved gases (mainly nitrogen) come out of solution in bubbles and can affect just about any body area including joints, lung, heart, skin and brain....
So, the genius behind the nitrogen bubble as a means of death for the death sentence decided giving an inmate "The Bends" will kill him, huh? The operative word here is "Comatose." Nitrogen toxicity causes a coma, death comes later. That is NOT a legitimate method of putting a person to death free of cruel and unusual. It is very unusual thinking. That is the only legitimacy this has.
