On Monday, 23rd September, a 64-year-old US woman died using the Sarco pod aka suicide pod. Her suicide sparked a lot of controversies around the world. People have started debating after the incident of her death.
The pod was kept in a forest near the Swiss-German border as the elderly woman wanted to see the trees and sky above her before dying. After entering the pod, she lost her consciousness and lost her life within 5 minutes.
On Tuesday, The Police of Switzerland arrested several people for ‘inducing and aiding and abetting suicide’ after the pod was used for the first time to commit suicide.
The Last Resort, a spokesperson of the group behind the sarco pod, said that the US woman who committed suicide using the pod was suffering from a disease related to the immune system. The four people who got arrested includes Florian Willet, co-president of the Last Resort, a Dutch journalist and two Swiss people. Florian Willet was the only person present when the woman committed suicide.
What is Sarco Pod and how does it work?
Sarco pod aka Suicide pod is a self-operated machine that delivers a peaceful and quick death. A person can easily die by using this pod. The individual just has to answer a few questions and press a button. It is a euthanasia device invented by an Australian doctor named Dr. Philip Nitschke. He made this pod with a goal to ‘de-medicalise the dying process’.
When an individual press the button of the pod, it gets occupied with nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gas present in the pod reduces the oxygen levels inside the pod and leads to the death of the individual inside it.
The process of dying in the pod includes making the person lose consciousness and die within 5 minutes. The pod also has an emergency button that can help the person to exit from the pod.
When a person inside the pod press the button, Nitrogen gas starts releasing in the pod and it eventually reduces the oxygen level of the sealed chamber. Because of the gas, person inside the chamber falls asleep and die by suffocation within few minutes.
Dr Philip Nitschke has also decided to make the blueprints of the pod available for free so that people can download the design of the pod. This pod with nitrogen gas canister is made in 20 dollars.