Trigger Warning: This story contains sensitive content; mentions of suicide
In a recent event, a 64-year-old woman from the U.S. has become the first individual to utilise a ‘suicide pod’ in Switzerland, raising significant ethical discussions. Following this incident, authorities detained several people on charges related to encouraging and facilitating suicide. The woman, whose name has not been released, opted for the 3D-printed device known as Sarco to end her life this Monday. A statement released by the company that makes the pods, The Last Resort, claimed that she passed away under the canopy of trees at a private forest retreat in the Canton of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland, adding that she “had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise”.
What is the Sarco pod?
The Sarco pod is a euthanasia device created by Australian Dr. Philip Nitschke with an aim to “de-medicalise the dying process”. The pod uses a 3D-printed detachable capsule mounted on a stand that contains a canister of liquid nitrogen. At the press of a button, the pod is flooded with nitrogen which reduces the oxygen levels rapidly helping the individual inside to die by suicide through inert gas asphyxiation. The entire process will make the person inside lose consciousness and die in around 10 minutes, according to BBC. Additionally, the suicide pod is activated from the inside and also has an emergency button to exit. Dr Philip has planned to make the blueprints available for free so anyone can download the design. The alleged cost for the entire process is $20 which is for the nitrogen gas canister.
“We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves,” he said on Exit International, a voluntary assisted dying charity he founded earning him the nickname “Dr Death”.
Is this legal?
According to the Guardian, while euthanasia is banned in Switzerland, the Swiss Criminal Code of 1942 permits adults to assist in another’s suicide as long as the motive for doing so is not “selfish”. Additionally, doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs for self-administration and to administer while organizations providing assisted suicide have been providing services under certain regulations since 1985.
Despite that, the use of the Sarco has not been welcome — Dignitas, a Swiss non-profit that provides physician-assisted suicide said to this, “For 35 years now, through the two Swiss Exit groups and for 23 years also with Dignitas, Switzerland has the practice of professional accompanied suicide with trained staff, in co-operation with physicians. In the light of this established, safe and professionally conducted/supported practice, we would not imagine that a technologised capsule for a self-determined end of life will meet much acceptance or interest in Switzerland.”
In the US, medically assisted dying is legal only in 11 out of 50. There are a few legislations that were passed in 2023 to allow more types of healthcare providers to sign off on requests for a medically assisted death.
As for India, both euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal although in some cases passive euthanasia is allowed. The matter of euthanasia caught the nation’s eye when writer-activist Pinki Virani filed a plea for Aruna Shanbaug. Aruna was a Mumbai nurse in her 20s who was brutally sexually assaulted by a ward boy in 1973 leading to severe brain damage that left her in a vegetative state. She finally passed away in 2015, after being relegated to a hospital bed for the better part of her life but as part of the Shanbaug judgment, the court allowed passive euthanasia based on certain conditions.
So what happened in the Swiss case?
The authorities were informed of the pod’s use at a remote retreat in Merishausen, close to the Swiss-German border. The Schaffhausen Police have opened criminal proceedings against “several people for incitement and aiding and abetting suicide.” They had been notified of the assisted suicide within an hour of it taking place. The capsule was recovered and the body was taken to the forensic institute for an autopsy. While Switzerland prohibits active euthanasia, it has permitted assisted dying for many years under strict regulations. However, the introduction of such an irregular device has prompted debates regarding its legal and ethical implications.