Switzerland has legalised the use of a ‘Suicide Machine’ named Sarco which offers painless death to those who desire it. It allows users to kill themselves painlessly by inducing hypoxia and hypocapnia (the state of inadequate oxygen supply at the tissue level and reduced carbon dioxide in the blood leading to death).
Shaped Like coffins, the machine brings the oxygen level inside the glass capsule down to a critical level within a few seconds, reported Independent citing the Machine’s creators.
As per the reports by Independent UK, the entire process takes less than a minute and allows the person to die “relatively peacefully and painlessly”. It is the latest example of advances in euthanasia machines, which are devices specifically engineered to allow an individual to die quickly with minimal pain in countries where voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide is legal.”
The suicide machine can be taken to a location of preference and after its use, the biodegradable capsule is detached from the base in order to serve as a coffin. The machine Sarco ‘‘the suicide machine’ is invented by Dr. Philip Nitschke, dubbed ‘Dr. Death’, and is short for “sarcophagus”.
“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.
According to the reports, with the Sarco machine being legal scrutiny in Switzerland, its creators are likely to put it up and ready for operation in the country from next year.”
In its initial days, the machine faced heavy criticism, specifically due to its nature wherein nitrogen flows into the capsule, displacing oxygen, leading to death. Some also compared it to the Gas Chambers that were used by Nazi Germany.
In Switzerland, assisted suicide is legal and approximately 1,300 people were reported to have used the services of euthanasia organisations, such as Dignitas and Exit, last year.
