The technology created by Dr. Philip "Death" Nitschke, founder of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International, allows users to be locked in an airtight chamber which is then filled with nitrogen gas that would render them unconscious in a minute and dead within ten minutes.
The death pods with brand name Sarco can only be operated from the inside. Users will be able to press a button, blink or gesture to release nitrogen gas that induces a state of hypoxia and eventually, death. They also feature an emergency stop button and an escape hatch.
These chambers had been marketed earlier in Switzerland under the banner of "suicide tourism." This means people can travel to have themselves killed in a variety of spa-like resorts created for that purpose.
A Swiss suicide provider said that Sarco's death pods look like a spaceship to symbolize the send-off to a new "destination." These death pods had also been displayed in the Netherlands and Germany.
Dr. Death wrote to Member of the Scottish Parliament Liam McArthur, who is behind an assisted suicide bill at the Holyrood, and asked him to back the pods that can "lead to a peaceful, even euphoric death."
This "culture of death" promotion solicited outrage among campaigners already opposing McArthur's proposed law.
"Ordinary people will be shocked and appalled at Philip Nitschke's attempt to lobby for the use of his personal gas chamber should Scotland legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia," said Dr. Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, a group promoting palliative care instead of euthanasia.
Even the Swiss assisted suicide clinic Dignitas said it did not believe that Nitschke's "do-it-yourself" approach would take off.
"In the light of this established, safe and professionally supported practice, we would not imagine that a technologized capsule for a self-determined end of life will meet much acceptance and/or interest in Switzerland," the clinic told Euronews.
Nitschke may find his niche in Canada
If his DIY death pods couldn't take off in Scotland, chances are high that they would in Canada – which is widely recognized as the assisted suicide capital of the world. (Related: Canada to become ASSISTED SUICIDE capital of the world.)
It is constitutional to perform medically assisted suicide in Canada, as per Bill C-14 also known as the Medical Assistance in Dying Act (MAiD). Canadians just need to show that their death is "reasonably foreseeable" to become eligible.
In 2017, the first full year following MAiD's passing, a government study reported that 2,838 people opted for assisted suicide. The numbers skyrocketed to 10,064 by 2021, accounting for more than three percent of all deaths in Canada that year.
There has been a total of 31,664 MAiD deaths recorded, mostly in the 65 to 80 age bracket.
In 2017, only 34 MAiD deaths were in the 18- to 45-year-old group. It increased to 49 in 2018; 103 in 2019; 118 in 2022; and 139 in 2021. Today, thousands of people who could live for many more years are applying to kill themselves. Doctors taking an increasingly liberal view when it comes to defining "reasonably foreseeable" death may have contributed to the increase in applications.
In March 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is scheduled to expand the pool of eligible suicide-seekers to include the mentally ill and "mature minors," a move that caused various negative reactions.
Palliative care physician Dr. Dawn Davies, a MAiD supporter when it was first conceived, said she is worried about where this might lead. She could imagine kids with personality disorders or other mental health issues saying they wanted to die.
"Some of them will mean it, some of them won't," she said. "And we won't necessarily be able to discern who is who."
Euthanasia.news has more stories about assisted suicide.
Watch the below video that talks about Dr. Death's do-it-yourself death pods.
This video is from the Vigilent Citizen channel on Brighteon.com.
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