June 14, 2026

Nitrogen Hypoxia as a Means of Execution

So this week the US Supreme Court finally got involved in the fiasco which has become execution by nitrogen hypoxia in the state of Alabama.

Hardly a bastion for progressive thought (or action), Alabama has a strong history in capital punishment.

Located in America’s deep south, Alabama seems proud to be forging new methods for the legal, state-sanctioned killing of prisoners they have deemed disposable to society.

Their latest method has been the (mis)use of nitrogen hypoxia.

Within the right to die movement death from hypoxia is a tried and true means of a reliable and peaceful death.

Until around 2007, helium gas (delivered via Worthington’s Balloon Time party kits) was the inert, non lethal gas of choice.

The point was not to die from inhaling a certain gas. Rather, a peaceful death would come about from a lack of oxygen.

When Worthington started to ‘contaminate’ their disposable canisters by adding 20% air (a change which was fine for inflating party balloons but less than ideal if you were wanting pure helium to fill an Exit bag),  Philip Nitschke pioneered the shift to nitrogen.

Other groups (eg. Final Exit Network) rapidly followed suit.

Today, nitrogen is the gas of choice for those dying from hypoxia using an Exit bag over the head.

Nitrogen was also the first choice when the Sarco was used in Switzerland in September 2024.

To recap, the point is not to breathe a certain gas, the point is to not breathe in oxygen.

It is the 21% oxygen in the air that we all breathe that sustains life. The remaining 79% is nitrogen.

Remove the oxygen and a hypoxic environment is created.

Exit’s Involvement in Death Row

In late 2023, Exit Founder Philip Nitschke was invite to Alabama to help stop the execution of Kenny Smith with nitrogen hypoxia.

The appeal failed and Smith would go on to be the first prisoner executed in this manner.

At the time of writing a further 8 prisoners have been executed via nitrogen hypoxia.

Philip says it is an eternal regret that he did not take the opportunity when he met Kenny at Holman Prison in December 2023, that he did not instruct him on ways to make his execution painless and efficient and his death short and ‘cleam’.

But that is the rub. Kenny didn’t want to die. Philip did not want Kenny to die either.

So what was he to do. In the end he did nothing. The pair talked about other things, (ie. the likelihood of his execution not going ahead).

Philip Nitschke with Kenny Smith, Holman Prison, December 2023

Nitrogen Hypoxia for the Unwilling

But Kenny did die, and he did not die well. And this is the problem with using nitrogen hypoxia to kill people who don’t want to die.

For a peaceful hypoxic death, deep breaths are required.

For prisoners who are lying, strapped to the guerney in the execution room in Holman Prison, and who do not want to die, they are logically going to do all they can to not die. Taking deep breaths (to ease their passing) is hardly high on their agenda.

And this is the problem.

An uncooperative participant is inherently unsuitable for a form of execution that requires a degree of willingness and cooperation.

This is why there are reports of writhing and convulsions for all the deaths of prisoners from nitrogen hypoxia.

These men are, without doubt, holding their breath. By doing so they are prolonging (in the most awful way) their deaths.

Their brains are receiving small amounts of oxygen: just enough to keep them alive. (Alive might be too strong a word here).

But the effect is that they are neither dead but nor are they living.

They may also be in somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness. No one knows.

Nitrogen Hypoxia for the Willing

The use of a plastic bag and inert gas (eg. nitrogen, helium or argon) has been a staple method of people wanting to die for at least the past 25 years.

Hypoxia remains a popular choice in this regard.

Why? Because of offers a reliable and peaceful method of dying.

Indeed, the Sarco was invented because of these characteristics.

The Sarco could be considered a glorified plastic bag in that it is a capsule that creates a space for a peaceful hypoxic death.

And we know the single death that took place inside the Sarco was peaceful because the video of the woman’s death shows it as such.

There are also countless eye witnesses of deaths with exit bags and gas.

Wth these deaths, the person does not/ did not gasp for air, nor were there contractions.

There was no discernible outward signs or pain or distress, only a quick and peaceful passing.

So how can it be that execution via nitrogen hypoxia is the stuff of horror stories but not exit bags or Sarco + gas?

The answer must lie in the cooperation of the person involved.

The science is not wrong. The politics remain dubious.