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Why not use pure nitrogen gas? 100% working, no suffering.

Alabama did. In reality, the executions did not go as cleanly as the proposals suggested they would.

https://eji.org/issues/alabama-botched-executions/

Studies are warranted to determine the pattern of introduction of nitrogen that eliminates any adverse sensations. The studies could probably be done on those seeking assisted suicide.

Because in the cases where we've used nitrogen gas we've observed people suffering. Nitrogen works if the victim breathes normally. But people naturally won't do that when you put the murder mask over their mouth and nose.

I'm against the death penalty, but the engineer in me wants to solve this problem.

So why not put the patient to sleep first with anesthetic drugs? After that the mask should not be a bother.

The problem is that anaesthesia has proven difficult for non-medics to reliably administer.

(As demonstrated by this botched execution, which used pentobarbital - a barbituate used for anaesthesia)

Right, then you need a medical professional willing to do it, and that probably gets difficult.

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