Medical Aid In Dying.
In the US at least, which isn't every state, but the ones who allow it, refers to if you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and have 6 months or less to live, you can apply for MAID and a doctor will provide a drug cocktail that allows someone to ctb peacefully - from what I've seen, it's usually propofol, follwed by a drug that paralyzes the muscles (lungs specifically, and finally a 3rd drug to stop the heart.
If I understand correctly, the two basic setups are tank + mask, and plastic bag? Also, do both setups work for any asphyxiant (like nitrogen/helium), it seems like you imply plastic bag only works well with N2O?
A plastic bag can certainly be used with nitrogen or helium, hence exit bags. However, they require a continuous flow, the ability to exhaust co2, etc. Helium/Nitrogen have more strict requirements. Also, reports vary on using Nitrogen or Helium. Some people complain of it being difficult to breathe high concentrations of such, become short of breath, and then abort. To be fair, others claim they are very peaceful.
With N2O, it's not necessary to have a continuous flow of gas. Filling a bag with N2O and sealing it is all that's need. A simpler setup implies that fewer things can go wrong.
N2O displaces both oxygen and co2 in the lungs, as this is the how the body gets rid of N2O - it moves it to the lungs to be exhaled. What that means is your exhales in a closed system still have a lot of N2O in it. People who use the stuff recreationally, will take a hit of a balloon, and exhale it right back in to the balloon to be inhaled again. So in a closed system, you are not necessarily using up the N2O as you breathe, meaning you don't have to keep replenishing the environment in the bag with a continual, steady flow of gas, like helium or nitrogen.
N2O has been shown to not only mitigate the hypercapnic response (breathing in too high of concentrations of CO2), but it also does not set off alarm bells of becoming short of breath. This is why people accidentally die from N2O in recreational use. The use a bag over their head, and despite not breathing in oxygen, there is no sense that something is wrong - they then lose consciousness and suffocate.
Masks have to have a way to get rid of the gas and your exhales, which is why they usually have vents. However the vents imply you could be sucking in oxygen, which defeats the purpose. It's also difficult to get a good tight seal with a mask. More expensive masks like scba might be a consideration though. Personally, I just feel there is too many things that could be disrupted or go wrong with having to continuously replenish.
If you do some searches on the forum for N2O, there is a lot of helpful information. Especially from the user Intoxicated.
Hi, you might remember from your previous thread about N2O.
Why should it change the setup from N2 to N2O? I'm talking about closed vs continuous flow... If both gasses work by eliminating O2 around you, the CO2 buidup from your breath should still make you uncomfortable if not expelled from the bag, right?
No. N2O displaces both oxygen and co2 in the lungs. Reflexive responses like hypercapnia (too high concentration of co2) are mitigated by N2O.
See my post directly above yours.
