There is one British scientist who has been developing
a humane method of killing based on the euphoric effects of the altitude chamber.
Dr Mohan Raj from Bristol University has been researching hypoxia
as a way to kill farm animals in slaughterhouses,
but instead of using a multi-million pound machine,
he's using a painless gas.
You've been using hypoxia humanely to kill farm animals.
How are you doing that? We're using argon and nitrogen.
You're using a gas? Yes. And that produces the same sort of hypoxia as I experienced?
That's correct, principally they deprive the brain of oxygen.
And how have you been doing that? We wanted to choose the gas mixture
that is animal-welfare friendly. The best way of deciding that
is to ask the pigs if they were given a free choice
to choose one or the other gas, what they call preference testing.
Doctor Raj conducted an experiment in which pigs were offered apples
in a chamber filled with different hypoxia-inducing gases.
First, he used carbon dioxide, a toxic gas that irritates the body.
they will not feed in that atmosphere.
Then he used inert gases such as nitrogen and argon.
Unlike carbon dioxide and the poison used in the gas chamber,
inert gasses have no detectable smell, taste or physical sensation.
So the body has no way of knowing that the oxygen in the air has been
entirely replaced by another gas.
The painless effect is confirmed by what the pig did next.
They woke up and just looked around
and went back to feed again on the apples, and that indicated to us
that it is a stress-free induction of unconsciousness.
And can I see this equipment? Of course you can.
So simple!
It is.
We have a source of nitrogen here.
Yeah. Taken through this tube,
and the gas is delivered using the face mask
to pigs restrained in this hammock.
And would you be able to change this mask
to a human mask and apply it to me?
Yes, you could, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Why? Because if you're inhaling pure nitrogen, you will be unconscious within 15 seconds.
15 seconds, really? That's right.
And how long to death? Within a minute.
Really? Yes. That's astonishing.
So this really is the perfect killing machine.
That appears to be the case, yes.
'So it turns out that a canister of gas, a tube and a mask
'can be the perfect killing machine. It's as simple as that.'
The method is cheap, it's viable, it's infallible.
Not only is it painless, but the person dies with euphoria,
and so science does provide
the answer to how you can have a humane method of execution.