Suicide bag

A suicide bag, also known as an exit bag or hood, is a euthanasia device consisting of a large plastic bag with a drawcord used to commit suicide through inert gas asphyxiation. It is usually used in conjunction with an inert gas like helium or nitrogen, which prevents the panic, sense of suffocation and struggling during unconsciousness (the hypercapnic alarm response) usually caused by the deprivation of oxygen in the presence of carbon dioxide. This method also makes the direct cause of death difficult to trace if the bag and gas canister are removed before the death is reported.

Suicide bags were first used during the 1990s. The method was mainly developed in North America.

Self-administered and assisted suicides by asphyxiation using a plastic bag with helium were first recorded in the 1990s. Since the 2000s, guides have spread on the internet, in print and on video and the frequency of suicides by this method has increased.

The suicide bag with inert gas method was originally developed by John Hofsess and the NuTech group, which consisted of Hofsess, Derek Humphry, engineers and physicians.

In the book Final Exit by Derek Humphry, a suicide bag was described as a large plastic bag with an adjustable velcro strip around the neck. Its use with inert gases was mentioned in the Supplement to Final Exit in 2000.

The pro-euthanasia group Exit Australia distributed a manufactured version of the bag in Australia in 2002, alarming government officials and pro-life groups. The Australian chapter of Right to Life expressed concern that they would be used by vulnerable people.

In 2007, The Vancouver Sun cited Russel Ogden, Canadian criminologist and right-to-die advocate, who said that the combination of a suicide bag and helium was "a method of choice" within the right-to-die movement for people who are terminally ill and that its promotion does not appear to cause an increase in the number of suicides. However, he said that he has no way of knowing if the method was being used by people with terminal illness or by people who are mentally ill.

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