Sarco suicide pod is machine created by Dr.Philip Nitschke which serves as means for a person to commit ‘gentle’ suicide. It works with Nitrogen gas as against the more conventional methods used in euthanasia of animals. Previously, individuals were required to seek help from others to kick start the action, but the device enables the action to be started by the user herself or himself by the press of a button.

Mechanism of the Sarco Pod

A lying down position is provided in the Sarco Suicide Pod which of course is occupied by the user before using the device. When the button is pushed, nitrogen is allowed to flow into the area creating a seal in which oxygen cannot enter. This process leads to hypoxia, a situation where the body does not get adequate oxygen and this leads to unconsciousness in roughly two minutes. This suffocated state in which the user dies mostly within five minutes due to oxygen deprivation is what the device provides. The death is intended to be fast and without suffering, no suffering as it takes only a few breaths of the gas for the body to lose consciousness.

As is obvious, the first user receives different experiences from the system.

The first case in which the use of Sarco was reported involved a 64-year-old American woman. The two minutes into the running of the pod, she became unconscious and died after five minutes as reported from the notes from Dr Nitschke. This seen prompted a criminal probe in Switzerland where the pod was used and at the same time showed how effective the pod was in offering a fast, voluntary death.

Legal Aspects

Switzerland has policies allowing assisted suicide provided that some strict conditions are met. The only condition is that people’s actions are done willingly, and they make these decisions on their own free will. While euthanasia means that a doctor injects the patient with a fatal dose of a drug, assisted suicide is when a patient takes a lethal substance himself. It means that the Sarco pod conforms to the Swiss law, unlike the prohibited assisted suicide, because the person himself/herself starts the process.

Swiss authorities are aware that the usual methods of assisted suicide, the Sarco pod among them, need to be legal and ethical. The investigations are made to establish that no persons was forced or pressured to use such devices.

As seen in the case of various cases in AV club people have lost their lives resulting to the intention of creating the safest way to die For this reason the ethical issues arising o the use of the saro pod are still questionable.

Sarco pod

Sarco pod has received a lot of attention from the international community due to ethical issues concerning it. While supporters claim that it preserves one’s human dignity in the process of a dignified death with regard to people with terminal diseases or unbearable pain, opponents are concerned with the problem of possible misuse. Questions may arise in areas such as whether the person is fully aware of the implications when they are consciously using the device and whether this device can be exploited in situations where the individual is clinically insane.

But Dr. Nitschke and his organization, Exit International, have stressed that pod is more about creating a physical means of a painless and medically unnecessary death. There are certain rights that people should enjoy under health and safety rules free from any interference of third parties when the life of any individual is coming to an end.

FAQs

Altogether, the Sarco suicide pod offers a new and radical way of assisted suicide that is being both condemned and praised. For people it gives them a chance to die with dignity and without interference from other people or the state. Although controversy surrounds its moral foundations, more pertinent questions include the nature of suicide, the right to die and the forms of suicide accessible for those who seek it.