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Nitschke's "Suicide Machine" Draws Crowds at Amsterdam Funeral Fair

posted by fyngyrz on Monday April 16 2018, @06:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the and-thanks-for-all-the-fish dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

Euthanasia advocate displays 'Sarco', a pod that fills with nitrogen, which he hopes will one day be available as a 3D-printable device

[...]

Called the "Sarco", short for sarcophagus, the 3D-printed machine invented by Australian euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke and Dutch designer Alexander Bannink comes with a detachable coffin, mounted on a stand that contains a nitrogen canister.

"The person who wants to die presses the button and the capsule is filled with nitrogen. He or she will feel a bit dizzy but will then rapidly lose consciousness and die," said Nitschke. The Sarco was a device "to provide people with a death when they wish to die," Nitschke said.

Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/15/nitschke-suicide-machine-amsterdam-euthanasia-funeral-fair

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Monday April 16 2018, @08:13AM (4 children)

    by mhajicek (51) on Monday April 16 2018, @08:13AM (#667548)

    What does 3D printing have to do with it? If all you need is a reasonably air-tight container to put a person in there's no need for 3D printing, and it can be done much faster, cheaper, and easier by other means. No doubt someone asked if 3D printing could be incorporated for publicity.

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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @08:42AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @08:42AM (#667551)

    Just pull a plastic bag over your head and then strangle yourself with a blockchain...

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by zocalo on Monday April 16 2018, @10:57AM (1 child)

    by zocalo (302) on Monday April 16 2018, @10:57AM (#667570)
    That actually does make some sense. The issue is that many countries have legislation concerning assisted suicide, specifically that they can (and will) prosecute any friends and family that assisted the deceased in a suicide bid, and selling suicide booths (or lethal medication kits, etc.) falls under the same legislation. This is why many people in Europe with terminal illnesses travel to countries like Switzerland that don't have such legal issues to die rather than continue to suffer under a futile palliative care programme. 3D printing your own (or just repurposing some other suitably airtight casket - I'd argue that if you are still mentally competent enough to make an informed decision on suicide you'd be able to figure that out too) means that you can do the entire thing on your own, with no additional messy legal legacies for friends and family to deal with once you're gone.
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    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday April 16 2018, @02:06PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Monday April 16 2018, @02:06PM (#667628)

      I've got to agree with the GP that 3D printing is entirely extraneous. Perhaps a bit of buzzword publicity. The hardest part of the whole procedure is likely to be getting a canister of nitrogen, once you have that and an oxygen mask you're good to go. Or ditch the oxygen mask for a bag over your head - all you need is a confined volume in which you can easily displace the oxygen with slightly over-pressure nitrogen, for long enough to ensure you die after loosing consciousness, since waking up with severe brain damage from non-lethal oxygen deprivation is unlikely to be a satisfying conclusion.

      I'm disappointed that the article chose to include a photo of a man in a VR headset rather than of the actual booth - because it seems to me the one thing a booth could actually offer over a DIY solution is a pleasant setting for your transition.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday April 16 2018, @05:00PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 16 2018, @05:00PM (#667701) Journal

    The purpose of using Nitrogen is to avoid the panic caused by CO2 buildup...which the "put a plastic bag over your head" would ensure. Personally, I think it should be a mix of Nitrogen and 5% Oxygen, or perhaps a bit more, but no CO2 so that you go out in the rapture of hypooxygenation. Fighter pilots who survived it said that it was quite enjoyable. (Many didn't, because they lost control of their planes so thoroughly that they couldn't recover when they got low enough for normal breathing to work. This was quite awhile ago, when they were still working out the bugs on the air systems...that they didn't know were there.)

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