A coffine-shaped capsule that relatively promises a painless and peaceful death in just one minute has been legalised in Switzerland, the makers claimed. They said the death occurs through hypoxia and hypocapnia by reducing the oxygen to a critical level in the pod.
The Independent UK reported that the machine can be functioned from inside even by blinking in case the person using it suffers from locked-in syndrome (a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and blinking).
The machine is taken to the favoured location of the user and then the decomposable capsule is separated from the base in order to serve as a coffin.
The director of the non-profit organisation Exit International, Dr Philip Nitschke, also known as ‘Dr Death’, is the mind behind the suicide pod.
According to Exit International which has developed the machine, around 1,300 people died by ‘assisted suicide’ last year in Switzerland.
“Barring any unforeseen difficulties, we hope to be ready to make Sarco available for use in Switzerland next year. It’s been a very expensive project so far but we think we’re pretty close to implementation now,” Dr Philip Nitschke said.
However, Nitschke received adverse reactions because of the method used by his machine. “Some have even said that it’s just a glorified gas chamber,” the Independent reported.
It has also been said by some that the machine glorifies and glamorises suicide.
At present, only two Sarco prototypes exist, but Exit International is 3D printing a third machine and it is expected to be ready for operation in Switzerland next year.
