Suicide pods now legal in Switzerland, providing users with a painless death
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: hallux • 3 years ago • 73 commentsBy: Michelle Butterfield Global News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Switzerland is giving the green light to so-called “suicide capsules” — 3-D printed pods that allow people to choose the place where they want to die an assisted death .
Dr. Philip Nitschke, the developer of the pods and founder of Exit International , a pro-euthanasia group, told SwissInfo.ch the machines can be “ towed anywhere for the death ” and one of the most positive features of the capsules is that they can be transported to an “idyllic outdoor setting.”
Currently, assisted suicide in Switzerland means swallowing a capsule filled with a cocktail of controlled substances that puts the person into a deep coma before they die.
But Sarco pods — short for sarcophagus — allow a person to control their death inside the pod by quickly reducing internal oxygen levels. The person intending to end their life is required to answer a set of pre-recorded questions, then press a button that floods the interior with nitrogen. The oxygen level inside is quickly reduced from 21 per cent to one per cent.
After death, the pod can be used as a coffin.
“We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves,” Nitschke said. “Our aim is to develop an artificial intelligence screening system to establish the person’s mental capacity. Naturally, there is a lot of skepticism, especially on the part of psychiatrists.”
“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,” Nitschke said in a Sarco demonstration last year.
Nitschke said his method of death is painless, and the person will feel a little bit disoriented and/or euphoric before they lose consciousness.
He said there are only two capsule prototypes in existence, but a third machine is being printed now, and he expects this method to become available to the Swiss public next year.
In a 2018 personal essay for HuffPost , Nitschke said his focus in the realm of assisted suicide has shifted over the years “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).”
“Time and again, we see the comfort and reassurance that is gained from knowing one has an ‘exit plan,’ so to speak, within reach, should the need ever arise. Being in control gives confidence. It restores one’s sense of self. And, yes, it generates dignity in living, knowing one will have dignity in dying,” he wrote.
Nitschke added that people who use the capsule will not feel any type of suffocation or choking in the low-oxygen environment. Rather, they will “feel their best.”
Assisted suicide is also legal in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Canada.
Almost 7,600 Canadians received medical assistance to end their lives last year , continuing a trend of steady annual increases in cases since the procedure was legalized in 2016.
That’s up 17 per cent from 5,631 assisted deaths in 2019, a number that itself was a 26 per cent increase over the previous year.
Justice official Joanne Klineberg told the Canadian Press earlier this year the number of cases will likely increase again as a result of recently passed legislation that expanded access to assisted dying to people who are not nearing the natural end of their lives.
She said cancer was the most commonly cited illness associated with requests for assisted dying in Canada last year, while the most commonly cited manifestations of suffering were the inability to engage in meaningful activities or perform activities of daily living.
The majority of applicants for assisted dying had received or had access to palliative care but felt their own suffering could not be relieved by that or other medical interventions, she said.
Canadian psychiatrists’ attitude toward medical assistance in dying for people with mental illnesses appears to have undergone a sea-change over the past five years.
When Canada first legalized assisted dying in 2016, a survey of its members by the Canadian Psychiatric Association found 54 per cent supported exclusion of people suffering solely from mental illnesses.
Just 27 per cent approved, while another 19 per cent were unsure.
But in another survey of its members conducted last October, a plurality of respondents — 41 per cent — agreed that individuals suffering only from mental disorders should be considered eligible for medically assisted deaths.
Thirty-nine per cent disagreed, while 20 per cent were unsure.
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Beam me down Scotty ...
Can you choose your colour, and is there a video screen allowing being entertained while you die like in Soylent Green?
do you suppose we could get a bulk price for 45 million of them, with an exterior lock on the hatch?
Holy Soylent Green Batman.
that is what I thought
me, too
Well being into movies, Soylent Green is certainly applicable, but so is Gran Torino when Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) provoked a gang to shoot and kill him in order to get them arrested and charged with murder when he was on his last legs of terminal cancer, doing that to get revenge for their rape of his young neighbour.
The difference in my opinion is that Walt's was an individual act of sweet revenge where SG is a societal behavior. They just wanted to go out with beautiful memories. But none the less, both great movies.
Yes, of course you're right. I simply mentioned them both because both required the individual's desire to commit suicide, and both were to do something positive - Soylent Green's purpose is to provide food (which is what Soylent Green is)
Soylent Green is certainly resourceful.
For me, the most poignant fact about Soylent Green was that when Charlton Heston was filmed crying while Edward G. Robinson was in the dying scene they did not need an eyedropper to put tears on Heston's cheeks because he was really crying, and that is because he knew that in real life Robinson was actually dying. This from the internet...
It seems wasteful for them to be single use. They should just rent them out, they could tow it to meet you at some spot of your choosing. Then wait while you take care of business then tow the pod with you in it to your chosen mortuary. I'm not against these but if kids are finding dead people in these pods while they're out hiking their parents should be able to sue the estate of the deceased. The fact is I don't want to be out enjoying a nice day in the forest and come upon a rotting corpse, that would spoil my day and I don't need someone else's baggage weighing me down.
They're supposed to be used as coffins after the death. But what if someone prefers cremation?
I suppose the preference for cremation would disqualify one for the pod. Instead of a pod, how about using an actual coffin which can either be buried or cremated depending on preference?
Do they burn the coffin with the body?
How about death by phaser?
It does not seem to hurt, the recipient is simply vaporized. Quick, painless, tidy.
That's a good way too. Also nice and clean. But not disruptors.
Yes.
No, traditionally, depending on state law, coffins are required for cremation, even if made out of paper, cardboard or wood.
They never try to cremate metal and/or concrete coffins
dutch oven/crockpot
And good for the environment
The US should have more widespread assisted suicide. Instead, terminally ill people who might be suffering must wait out the clock and possibly be suffering too.
It's my understanding that one of the "perks" of Roe v Wade was that an individual could decide on whether or not to continue or terminate a medical life support. I wonder how the SCotUS feel about that?!
SCOTUS is "supposed" to rule on legal points - not "feeling" points.
Operative word is "supposed".
How do you feel giving your bodily autonomy over to a doctor that has taken an oath to keep you alive regardless of your wishes/wants/needs?
My favorite word - "depends".
There are DNR, Advanced Directives, and Living Wills that protects autonomy and expresses the wishes of an individual. Doctors generally respect those particular choices.
"depends"
Sounds like "pro the ability to choose." Either for yourself or for someone else.
Roe gave us the ability of what you might call "personal bodily ownership" through the right of privacy. Do away with Roe and that "right" may/can /will be weakened or removed by the state.
Overturning Roe effectively means the state can revoke a right that has been granted. To say nothing of other consequences. Yet some people seem ok with that. Go figure.
It's these "other consequences" that will bite a lot of people in the A**!
Indeed. There are real world examples too in countries where abortion is severely restricted or outright prohibited. Such draconian measures does not reflect well on the country or its society. And some here actually want that?
Makes me think of Ceaucescu (spelling) and his ban of contraception and abortion for two decades.
And the resulting mass neglect of unwanted children
Are they delivered in discrete brown paper wrappers?
I laugh remembering the day when my 60 year old father bet my 88 year old grandmother
who would require depends first.
He needed them within 6 years while she lived another 11 years with no assistance other than
hours before she died she asked me to carry her to a toilet surrounded by a privacy screen in front of
all of her adult children who could not cope.
She knew the time was near and did not want to soil her linnens.
Except for my wife, the finest woman and most honest person I ever knew
It's difficult to see the bottom left font.
Upper right panel; So, you're going to increase spending on pre-natal care, SNAP, child care tax deductions, and early education; while making it possible to collect child support back-dated to conception, right?
Lower right panel: Right?
lower left panel: the mad sonneteer
Thank you.
How is a person on death’s door supposed to climb into that thing?
Anyway, seems like a lot of unnecessary complication.
Given the method they're using to kill the person they really only need a helmet and a small tank. They could just park their car in a designated spot in the hospital parking lot put on the helmet and start their favorite music mix and turn on the gas. They might want to cover their seat with a plastic bag and wear a diaper so car doesn't get soiled.
Agreed. It's stylish, but impractical. And probably expensive too. A cyanide capsule seems quick and easy. The controlled substance ingestion system already in place seems like a good method too.
I don't know - I think I'd rather go as planned in the pod. It seems like a more comfortable death. But I agree with zuksam that it seems pretty wasteful as a single-use item.
Well, you're only gonna use it once, right?
So one hopes.
But it could be used by somebody else later.
I would prefer quick and painless. A pod might not be a good choice if one is claustrophobic.
Cyanide is not exactly painless. It's quick, tho
Perhaps that's why a narcotic cocktail is used instead. It may not be quick. But it will be painless and effective.
That's what I was thinking - cyanide is a quick way to go, but it sounds pretty unpleasant.
If I were to choose suicide, I'd prefer to just go to sleep. A little euphoria on the way down doesn't sound bad, either.
Yeah, I thought of the claustrophobia angle. Narcotic/barbiturate cocktail while laying in a nice, warm bed sounds better in that case.
The entire family should buy one
Anew tradition!
Everybody gets a suicide pod for Xmas!
Seems to me that they already have an extremely portable, convenient, painless and low cost solution. Over engineering a bit?
I'm sure that's fine as long as it's in the hospital and it's administered by a doctor. I don't think it's a good idea to let the public take suicide death pills home there's just too many crazy evil people and it might be hard to prove murder if it's done with a known suicide pill (reasonable doubt). Like "my wife was mad because I wanted to kill myself and she must have found my pill and used it on herself" we're suspicious we think he murdered her but maybe just maybe he's telling the truth.
I have to assume this pod has protocols as well. So ultimately, with protocols in place, the end mechanism is a pod or a pill. Seems like overkill to do the pod.
As a single individual I may not be that important to anyone. But, I have thought of suicide a few times in my life, yet, each time I tried it just didn't happen. Why I am not too sure.
So I have decided to simply hang around until the Creator determines when my time here on earth is up, and see what He has planned for me in the next steps in my own eternal journey.
Evening Raven...well you are important to me and many others here...
You did not succeed, because it was not your time..your Creator has spoken.
Who else is going to brighten our days with your fantastic creations and give us something to look forward to each week...
Besides don't you have a kitty?? Who would look after her?? I am in the same boat and my main purpose is to live longer than my kitty who has just turned 11...
I have no idea how long I will walk this earth for, no one does.. but I am happy to wake each morning and face a new day...
If this Christmas is my last then so be it, but I plan to be here for many more....and I hope you do too..🐾🐾
Thank you for much for your very, very kind words, shona. My many Friends here on NT are my Family, so to speak. Coming here each day, even for a little while, brings me joy.
And yes, my main goal now is to out live my kitty, who will be 11 y/o in April '22. We are all each of us has, so we do our best to take good care of each other.
And yes, I hope to be here for her as long as she is with me. Sharing my artwork each week here on NT gives me great joy. Hopefully, helping others learn a bit more about the customs, traditions, culture and beliefs of the many various Native American and other Indigenous Tribes through my artwork.
Thank you again for your words of support and encouragement.
I for one have learnt a lot from your words and wonderful artwork... more than anyone would from a text book.
You take care, hug that kitty and look for the next sunrise...😸🌄
Thank you shona. You are in my thoughts and prayers. I know firsthand that the road you are on now is not an easy one, but, there are many hearts that are with you and you are not alone.
I know that no matter how many clouds there are that may cover the sky, the sun is still shining on the other side.
Yoda Girl sends you her purrs and cuddles.
Mishka send purrs and licks across the Pacific to you both..🐾🐾😸
Huh..... So the Swiss are marketing personal death chambers. The world she is a-changing...do you think the Germans are jealous they didn't think of it first?
Futurama had suicide booths.