Switzerland has just legalized a new way to die by assisted suicide.
The Sarco suicide capsule, to be used in assisted suicide, has passed legal review in Switzerland and may legally be operated in the country.
Assisted suicide is different from active euthanasia which is still illegal in Switzerland.
However, supplying the means for committing suicide is legal, as long as the action which directly causes death is performed by the one wishing to die.
‘It’s a 3-D printed capsule, activated from the inside by the person intending to die. The machine can be towed anywhere for the death. It can be in an idyllic outdoor setting or in the premises of an assisted suicide organisation, for example,’ said Dr Philip aka Dr Death Nitschke, who developed the capsule.
The ‘Sarco’ is a device ‘to provide people with a death when they wish to die, which is peaceful and reliable but also elegant and stylish’.
Approximately 1,300 people died by assisted suicide in Switzerland in 2020.
Currently, the method used for this is the ingestion of liquid sodium pentobarbital which puts the person to sleep before they slip into a deep coma, followed by death.
‘The benefit for the person who uses it is that they don’t have to get any permission, they don’t need some special doctor to try and get a needle in, and they don’t need to get difficult drugs to obtain,’ Nitschke said.
How it works
Once activated, the capsule floods the interior with nitrogen and rapidly reduces oxygen, causing the individual to lose consciousness and, ultimately, pass away without choking or panicking.
Once the process is complete, the biodegradable capsule can then be detached from the machine’s base in order to serve as the deceased person’s coffin.
The idea for Sarco was sparked in 2012 over the case of British man Tony Nicklinson, who was unable to speak or move as a result of a severe stroke in 2005.
Mr Nicklinson fought a long, and ultimately unsuccessful, court battle in a bid to allow his doctors legally to assist his suicide. Dr Nitschke began to consider how assisted suicide would be possible for an individual whose movements were limited to blinking.
The Sarco was developed as a result to offer people the option of peacefully ending their life without assistance.
The first Sarco is being displayed at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel, Germany from September 2021 to February 2022.
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