Sound inside

The Sound Inside 8/23/19 37
body-temperature water tricks the nervous system into thinking that it’s
somehow entering a safe, womblike space, so you never go into shock.
Unfortunately, being discovered with a plastic bag over my head in my
bathtub seems grotesque and obvious and when it comes to a surefire selfdispatching
I can’t bring myself to wholeheartedly trusting the plastic bag
industry.
There’s a Danish “Death Pod” that looks like an intergalactic tanning bed.
Like a tanning bed you climb inside of it and lie down… but you don’t get tan,
you die.
Through a few hours of trial-and-error link-clicking that has no doubt
infected my laptop with multiple computer viruses, I’m led to a chatroom,
where an anonymous, very helpful concierge of sorts walks me through the
particulars of lethal injection, which is accomplished by executing a series of
three injections.
First, there’s the sodium pentobarbital, which leads to unconsciousness in
under-thirty seconds. The last known thirty seconds of your life, if you really
think about it.
Have you ever turned the lights off and counted to thirty?
One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven…
It’s an eternity.
Next is pancuronium bromide, which is a powerful muscle relaxant that
causes complete paralysis of the skeletal muscles, including the diaphragm
and the rest of the respiratory system. This phase of the three-part process
eventually causes death by asphyxiation.
The third and final substance is potassium chloride, which stops the heart,
thus causing death, yet again, by cardiac arrest.
Therein lies our brief chemistry lesson.
Three needles. A terminal hat trick. The proper sequence is essential to
pulling this off. If done correctly, success is guaranteed.