The country's medical review board announced the legal approval of the Sarco suicide pods recently. The pods can be operated by the user from the inside.
Philip Nitschke, the maker of the pods and founder of Exit International, a pro-euthanasia group, told SwissInfo.ch that the machines can be towed anywhere for the death, and one of the most brilliant features of the capsules is that they can be transported to an idyllic outdoor setting.
Sarco capsules (short form of sarcophagus) rapidly decrease the amount of oxygen inside them, resulting in painless and peaceful death of the individual. The person who wants to end their life is required to answer a set of pre-recorded questions, followed by pressing a button that floods the interior with nitrogen. The oxygen level inside is quickly decreased from 21% to 1%. After death, the 3-D printed capsule can be used as a coffin.
Nitschke said this method of death is painless and the individual will feel a little bit disoriented and/or euphoric before losing consciousness.
He said there are only 2 pod prototypes present now, but a third pod is being 3-D printed now, and he expects this process to become accessible to the Swiss public next year.
Nitschke said his focus in the zone of assisted suicide has shifted over the years from assisting the idea of a dignified death for the terminally ill to assisting the idea of a good death for any average adult who has 'life experience.'
Nitschke said that individuals while using the pods will not suffer from any type of breathing problems in the claustrophobic environment. The whole method takes around 30 seconds. Death occurs by hypoxia and hypocapnia, oxygen and carbon dioxide deprivation, respectively.
The pod's sleek design was decided to "show a sense of occasion: of travel to a 'new destination' and to dispel the 'yuk' factor," Exit International, the company that made the machine, conveys on its website.
In Sarco, there's no need for specialized skills, medical intervention, or even expensive or difficult to get drugs. The aim of Sarco pods is to get rid of any assistance. This ensures that the use of Sarco is legal.
The Sarco design, which enables activation by detecting movement of eye or voice control, was inspired by Tony Nicklinson, who suffered from a stroke in 2005, followed by locked-in syndrome. Locked-in syndrome is a neurological condition in which the person has complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles, except those that control the eyes.
Nitschke told that some people compare the Sarco pods to a gas chamber. Gas will never be an accepted for assisted suicide in Europe due to the negative effects of the Holocaust, he said.
Assisted suicide is legally approved in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Colombia, Spain and Luxembourg.
The open-source plans will be accessible on the internet. I would like to think that it will find great appeal and will be able to help reconstruct conversations about, and people's experiences, with death.
Euthanasia is totally different from assisted suicide. As per NHS, euthanasia is the process of willingly ending an individual's life to be free from suffering. Assisted suicide is the process of helping an individual to end their life without any medical checkup or prescription.
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