[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

A young woman in Belgium who has depression plans to have herself executed by a humane euthanasia NGO out of Switzerland. They usually tend to people with ALS and painful cancer sufferers.

[alancalverd]

Seems odd to make it so public. Most non-political suicides are private affairs.

As for the ethics, I would happily assist a private suicide if I couldn't offer a better solution to the person's problems, but I wouldn't condone one that was heralded by a press release unless there was a serious and achievable political objective.

[RD]

... a humane euthanasia NGO out of Switzerland ...

I read that in the past that Dignitas in Switzerland used Helium to suffocate their customers ...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20211999

Their last words would not have been very dignified, (in a Helium voice).

So Dignitas were effectively charging thousands of pounds for a bag of Helium. Kerching.

[Petrochemicals]

Yes

[alancalverd]

I'm always baffled by the use of helium. It's a rare and valuable material and does indeed produce some very odd last words. Essential for deep diving, but at normal atmospheric pressure nitrogen hypoxia is just as pleasant, narcotic and fatal, much cheaper, readily available, and doesn't affect the pitch of your voice. It's my chosen exit. 

[RD]

... at normal atmospheric pressure nitrogen hypoxia is just as pleasant, narcotic ...

For nitrogen narcosis the gas has to be under pressure ...

"... Symptoms disappear immediately on ascending to a shallow depth..."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/nitrogen-narcosis

At "normal atmospheric pressure" it would just be suffocation, no anaesthesia ...

... the World Society for the Protection of Animals lists nitrogen inhalation as "not acceptable" for animal euthanasia because loss of consciousness is not instantaneous, and dogs euthanized by nitrogen gas have been observed convulsing and yelping after falling unconscious ...

https://www.livescience.com/62037-oklahoma-executions-nitrogen.html

[alancalverd]

Interesting. I've seen a pig actually enjoying nitrogen hypoxia - at least he kept coming back for more - and most folk who have suffered altitude hypoxia (myself included) report a sensation like alcohol intoxication, wellbeing and relaxation. Nitrogen replacement of oxygen has the same physiological effect as altitude.

Suffocation, to my mind, is different. Inability to breathe, coupled with increasing urgency to do so due to increasing CO2 concentration, leads to panic.

It is true that nitrogen narcosis is encountered under pressure

Also known as the ‘rapture of the deep,’ nitrogen narcosis is a state of altered mental status, most notably euphoria, and confusion caused by intoxication with dissolved nitrogen due to its narcotic effects under pressure.

- some similar effects to hypoxia, but not the same cause or physiology, and I apologise for using the wrong word.