Ruminations: Escaping Life By Design

"The person will get into the capsule and lie down. It's very comfortable. They will be asked a number of questions and when they have answered, they may press the button inside the capsule activating the mechanism in their own time. The whole thing takes about 30 seconds Death takes place through hypoxia and hypocapnia, oxygen and carbon dioxide deprivation, respectively. There is no panic no choking feeling."
"[The person will] feel disoriented and slightly euphoric before losing consciousness."
"Gas may never be an acceptable method for assisted suicide in Europe due to the negative connotations of the Holocaust. Some have even said it's just a glorified gas chamber."
Dr.Philip Nitschke, assisted death proponent

"The goal of Sarco is to remove the need for any assistance. This ensures any use of the Sarco is legal."
"[Once the individual has triggered the mechanism, the pod] starts the process of flooding the inside with nitrogen, which will reduce the oxygen level from 21 percent to 1 percent."
Exit International

"We will not and cannot support any suggestion of using such equipment."
"Westerkerk will never support people offering equipment as promoted by Dr.Nitschke and we seriously wonder whether this contributes to a thorough and careful discussion about the issue."
Jeroen Kramer, president, Westekerk church board, Amsterdam

A 3D-printed "deathpod" named by its manufacturer Exit International, the "Sarco", short for sarcophagus, has been approved in Switzerland for legal use there as an assisted suicide machine. According to its manufacturer it promises a "painless death" one which can be activated among other means, simply by blinking, once ensconced within and its mechanics activated. The biodegradable pod is not wildly popular everywhere however, some claiming its use glamourizes death.

It is lightweight and highly portable. As such readily taken anywhere the individual proposing to end their life may decide a landscape is the last thing they would like to view while departing this mortal coil. There are no tubes, no monitoring equipment, and the pod has a futuristic look about it. Some, unimpressed with its purpose, compare it to a gas chamber. The selection of its sleek design chosen to "suggest a sense of occasion", of travel to a 'new destination', according to Exit International.

With this modern-day sarcophagus, no specialized skills are required and no medical involvement, much less difficult-to-obtain drugs. Australian physician, Dr.Philip Nitschke founded the non-profit organization that now produces the Sarco. He claims to have been the first in the world to introduce his patients to a legal, lethal, voluntary injection when he aided four terminally ill patients in 1996 to die under Australia's rights of the Terminally Ill Act. Now he is prepared to gift the world with his concept.

The design mechanism of the Sarco enables activation through eye movement or voice control. Its death-facilitation was inspired by a man who suffered from locked-in syndrome, a neurological condition where fhe individual suffers complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles save those controlling the eyes.


Sarco has been displayed at several art and design events around Europe Exit International

Only seven countries globally -- Canada, Belgium, Luxenbourg, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands and Colombia -- have legalized assisted suicide. Most of them require that only terminally ill or those suffering with an incurable illness can be eligible under their rules and regulations for end-of-life assistance. In the United States, though not legal federally, eight states have legalized assisted suicide.

Argentina Chile and Uruguay have parliamentary bills moving along into law to decriminalize euthanasia. Sarco, according to its inventor and major exponent Dr.Nitschke, will soon be available to the entire world.

"[Everyone should have the right to] die with dignity [not just terminally ill people]."
"My vision has shifted from supporting the idea of a dignified death for the terminally ill [the medical model] to supporting the concept of a good death for any rational adult who has 'life experience' [the human rights model]. We interpret that to mean anyone over fifty years of age."
"The open-source plans will be freely available on the internet. I would like to think that it will find broad appeal and be able to help reframe conversations about, and people's experience, with death."
Dr.Philip Nitschke, Australian humanist, former medical doctor