A pro-euthanasia activist nicknamed “Dr Death” claims to have invented a suicide capsule that will enable assisted dying at the press of a button.
Philip Nitschke, 74, who is Australian, says users will be able to get into his capsule, called Sarco, and release nitrogen, reducing the oxygen level to 1 per cent and leading to death.
“The person will feel a bit disorientated and could feel slightly euphoric before losing consciousness,” he told Swissinfo, a news website run by the country’s public broadcaster. “It all lasts about 30 seconds.” He added that the capsule was “very comfortable”.
Nitschke, the director of Exit International, a pro-euthanasia group, wants to make his invention available in Switzerland, where assisted suicides are authorised.
He claimed that a review by a Swiss lawyer had shown there was no legal bar to the use of his capsule in the country, and that he hoped it would be available in Switzerland next year.
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However, Dignitas, the Swiss assisted suicide association, denounced the capsule, which it said would be unlikely to win public acceptance. About 1,300 people used the services of Dignitas and other assisted suicide associations in Switzerland last year.
Under Swiss euthanasia law, doctors are not required to be present at the time of death but must prescribe the lethal drug, usually sodium pentobarbital, and ensure that the person wanting to die has the capacity to make an enlightened choice.
Nitschke said his aim was to remove medical intervention to let people have total control of their death. “We want to get rid of any form of psychiatric examination in the process to let the person control the method themselves,” he said.
“Our aim is to develop a system of detection through artificial intelligence to establish the person’s mental capacity. Of course, there is a lot of scepticism from psychiatrists. But our original conceptual idea is that the person does a test online and receives a code to access the Sarco.”
Exit International has said it has no plans to sell the capsule but will make the design available to be 3D-printed. Critics say that could raise legal issues in countries where assisted suicide is prohibited and moral issues elsewhere over the risks of it being used without proper safeguards.
