It is not disputed that when death is imminent, we prefer to have the fastest method applied. From a bullet to the head or a swift cut of a sword, we seem to value the speedy release of consciousness as being the kindest end to life.
Imagine, for instance, someone who wanted you dead, justified or not, has you tied up and offers you the choice to take a bullet to the head or one to the stomach. Either option is guaranteed to be fatal. Assuming you have no way to spend your final moments contacting family or wrapping up affairs (this is perhaps the only scenario where someone might consider the latter option). One would be hard-pressed to find someone pleading for the bullet to the liver.
Absent extreme outliers, I have always held what I assume is the typical belief that a quick death would generally be better than a long one. If the government were to release a nationwide emergency report at right this moment, I could choose to have a nuke dropped on my city, evaporating me instantaneously, or I could choose to have the nuke dropped to an adjacent city (guaranteeing radiation); I would choose the former. Living through a nuclear winter, starving, post-apocalyptic world, or slowly dying from radiation seems worse than just flat-out dying to me.
However, after discussing ‘The Stranger’ with some students in our epistemology class, my mind was changed. We were talking about some of the more apparent insights to come from the absurdist’s novel when, naturally, the conversation moved to how the guillotine seems much more humane than the infamous electric chair or even our current concoction of chemicals we inject into death row inmates (this last point, however, deserves a lengthy explanation elsewhere).
Walking away from the conversation, I remembered the research I had come across concerning the release of DMT in dying rats.
N, N-Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT for short, is most commonly known for its psychoactive effects when consumed exogenously. Usually smoked, DMT is reported to produce vivid visions of mystical experiences involving euphoria and dynamic hallucinations of geometric forms. Although the experience only lasts 10-15 minutes, people often report feeling they were gone for weeks in a different plane of existence, speaking to gods, aliens, past family members, and the like. It's worth mentioning this is a rather reductive overview of the substance, but it will do for our purposes.
Although the extent to which DMT plays in mammalian brains is hotly contested there are a few things we know quite well. We know that rats and other similar mammals have varying amounts of DMT in their brains. It was hypothesized that the pineal gland (the place in the brain that regulates hormonal function) was the culprit for such a compound. However, further research showed that rats still produced DMT even when their pineal gland had been removed. We also know that rats forced into cardiac arrest exhibit increased DMT production in their brains. So much so that during this life-threatening event, their levels of DMT matched that of serotonin.
So why does this matter? For one, it is true that DMT is found in various parts of human brain tissue, but further research needs to examine whether a similar phenomenon to that of rats occurs in humans. The philosophical implications of such an occurrence can be ground-breaking.
It is debated whether DMT could be a supposed cause of NDEs (near-death experiences). But It could explain the various psychedelic-like visions and hallucinations people report having, such as seeing a bright, warm light calling to them, hearing familiar voices, feeling like they see their whole life, and years of experiences flashing before them in an instant.
Evolutionarily, it would make sense for us to reproduce a trait that can save us from the dreadful fear of death (fear, of course, causing stress, a trait that makes one less likely to survive). Religiously, this may also hold true, as many devout believers have had their own NDE or have been present/ heard of when a loved one experienced one. It has also been hypothesized that dreams may be so bizarre (having time distortions, going through memories, etc.) because trace amounts of DMT are released when we sleep.
More research needs to be done to assess the validity of each of these hypotheses. But Imagine for a moment that this is what happens when we die. DMT floods our brains to help us move into non-physical existence. Does it not then seem entirely inhumane to quickly kill someone and rob them of a lifetime of recollection, meeting with loved ones, and feeling oneself climb toward that warm, inviting light? Placing a bullet through one's brain indeed spoils any hope that a person leads such an experience. The guillotine may be the most humane after all, as death is quick, but the brain is not dismembered.
Until the case is firmly stated in scientific consensus, I fear I would not be putting all my chips on a bullet to my chest rather than my head. Although I will be thinking twice about what I claim is the most “humane” way to go.