Switzerland has just legalized a new form of assisted suicide, approved by the country's medical review board: it is called the Sarco Suicide Pod, and it is a portable capsule with windows, similar to a coffin, that can be transported wherever the user wants to die.
This
"suicide capsule"
allows quick and painless euthanasia, according to its creators.
Inside, oxygen is slowly reduced and nitrogen increases until the person dies, as described by the iflscience.com portal
In those 30 seconds, the individual feels a state of euphoria as the brain runs out of oxygen, but death is painless, it does not feel asphyxiated and there is no hyperventilation, as they explain.
The capsule will be ready to be marketed
starting next year
and will include a video camera that allows the user to talk to those who are outside, according to its creators.
The machine is expected to be on sale in 2022 via Exit International.
“The machine can be located anywhere.
It can be in an idyllic outdoor setting
or on the premises of an assisted suicide organization, for example, ”explained Philip Nitschke, founder of the Exit International company, which designed it, in an interview with the local Swissinfo media.
Once the person is inside, they are asked a series of questions before activating the suicide mechanism, according to the aforementioned medium.
In any case, it can be deactivated in case you want to stop the process once it has started.
Nitschke said that many people are surprised to learn that there are people who want to plan their death in advance.
"Is this morbid?
It is depressing?
At Exit International we believe not, "he wrote in The Huffington Post.
He added that he thought about what he would want his own death to look like to design the capsule.
"This is my first my first tangible expression of the search for
a death much more than just dignified," he
explained.
[Denying Martha Sepúlveda a dignified death is "disrespectful" and "illegal": the Colombian's family reacts who asks to die by euthanasia]
The Sarco Suicide Pot, inspired by Tony Nicklinson, a man from the UK who had the locked-in syndrome and campaigned to die however he wanted, will not be for everyone, according to Nitschke.
Next year, however, the open source plans will be freely available on the Internet.
If you're only going to die once, Nitschke wondered, why not have the best?