About Exit Snippets

Exit Snippets are mini online workshops hosted by Dr Philip Nitschke.

Snippets are exclusively for Exit Members & current Subscribers to the online Peaceful Pill eHandbook.

Recordings are published in the online Peaceful Pill eHandbook.

• Photo ID is required
• Fully Online
• Duration ~ 60 minutes inc. Q&A

About the March 2025 Snippet

Topic: ‘Does Nembutal Cause Drowning?’

Synopsis:

For many years, Exit has sung the praises of a Nembutal death as the ‘gold standard’. 

Against this praise, however, there is expert commentary that can no longer be ignored.

Given the use of Nembutal in almost every place where assisted suicide is legal, and given its long history of use in executions in the USA, there should be ample ‘robust scientific data’ that puts to rest the allegation that Nembutal causes subjective drowning.

But there isn’t!

SWISS DATA

The Swiss clinics do not (and are not required to) collect data on the efficacy of Nembutal as an end of life means. Indeed Dignitas has recently declined an interview to discuss their experience on precisely this issue.

Only in Oregon state in the US does data exist and there it is patchy.

OREGON DATA

For example, of the 367 recorded assisted deaths that took place in Oregon in 2023, data on possible complications is missing in 265 of those cases. 

What is known is that 9%-11% of patients who died from the oral ingestion of end of life drugs (including pentobarbital/ Nembutal) experienced complications, including vomiting, aspiration, agitation, and seizures (Medscape Medical News, 13 March 2025).

This is the situation with elective, voluntary deaths but what is the situation in the execution context which involves involuntary death of prisoners?

EXECUTIONS DATA

The execution chamber is one place where the State has been active in collecting data on the types of death that are experienced.

But, as is emerging with nitrogen hypoxia, a voluntary death involving the Sarco and being executed against your will in Alabama are entirely different things!

It is Anesthesiologist Dr. Joel Zivot of Emery University Hospital who has been spearheading the argument that executions using pentobarbital cause ‘flash pulmonary edema’ (where a person experiences subjective drowning).

In his research on the autopsies of over 200 executed prisoners, Dr Zivot has argued that pulmonary edema is present in 66% of cases.

Is this a case of the execution situation producing a vastly different kind of death experience from a voluntary, dignified death.

Or is this drowning sensation why some people who take Nembutal (orally or intravenously) give a gutteral cough an gasp during the dying process?

Either way, Zivot’s claim of ’subjective drowning’ highlights the desperate need for further research?

Next weeks Online Snippet will examine the type of death that Nembutal provides.

Is the possibility of complications (inc. subjective drowning) from Nembutal the right to die movement’s ‘dirty little secret’ (be that in Switzerland or elsewhere) or is this a case of ideology corrupting the science? 

Is a Nembutal death truly peaceful?

Time Zones:

New York, USA  – Mon, 24 Mar 2025 at 19:00 EDT
Los Angeles, USA – Mon, 24 Mar 2025 at 16:00 PDT

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Tue, 25 Mar 2025 at 00:00 CET
Perth, Australia – Tue, 25 Mar 2025 at 07:00 AWST
Brisbane, Australia  – Tue, 25 Mar 2025 at 09:00 AEST
Adelaide, Australia  – Tue, 25 Mar 2025 at 09:30 ACDT
Sydney, Australia –  Tue, 25 Mar 2025 at 10:00 AEDT
Auckland, New Zealand – Tue, 25 Mar 2025 at 12:00 NZDT