(LifeSiteNews) – The inventor of the notorious “suicide pod” is back with a new macabre spin on the original device: a version designed for couples to die together.
Unveiled in 2019, the Sarco Suicide Pod is a portable, 3D-printed, one-man capsule that can be flooded with nitrogen from inside, after the user answers one survey to be told the pod’s location, then another set of questions to confirm his or her intent to die.
“We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves,” inventor Philip Nitschke of euthanasia advocacy group Exit International has said. “The machine can be towed anywhere for the death. It can be in an idyllic outdoor setting or in the premises of an assisted-suicide organization, for example … It’s very comfortable … There is no panic, no choking.”
The pod was only used once so far, with the 2024 death of a 64-year-old American woman with a compromised immune system in Switzerland, but after being released by authorities who ruled out intentional homicide, Nitschke is back with plans to take the concept even further.
The Daily Mail reported that he wants to create what he calls a Double Dutch Sarco pod, designed for two people to kill themselves side by side, sharing their last moments. Both occupants would have to press their kill buttons simultaneously for it to activate.
“Most of the bits have been printed,” Nitschke said. “We expect that in a couple of months it’ll be ready.”
Arguably even more disturbing, however, are the plans for the new device to cut human review out of the process entirely, instead tying the ability to activate the pod to a test administered by artificial intelligence (AI).
“Traditionally, that’s done by talking to a psychiatrist for five minutes, and we did that. She had a rather traditional assessment of mental capacity through a Dutch psychiatrist,” Nitschke explained. “But with the new Double Dutch, we’ll have the software incorporated, so you’ll have to do your little test online with an avatar, and if you pass that test, then the avatar tells you you’ve got mental capacity.”
Switzerland is currently the only nation where the rules governing euthanasia are lax enough for the pods to have a chance of operating legally, but even there the 2024 death is still under investigation, and the original pod remains confiscated.
“The authorities are still determining whether what happened in the forest in September 2024 was an illegal assisted suicide, motivated by ‘selfish reasons’ such as reputational enhancement,” the Mail explained.
In America, physician-assisted suicide is currently legal in 12 states plus the District of Columbia, with legalization measures pending in an additional 13.
As Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF) executive director Matt Vallière has argued, current euthanasia programs in the United States constitute discrimination against patients with life-threatening conditions in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as when a state will “will pay for every instance of assisted suicide” but not palliative care, “I don’t call that autonomy, I call that eugenics.”
Live Action’s Bridget Sielicki further noted that “because a paralytic is involved, a person can look peaceful, while they actually drown to death in their own bodily secretions. Experimental assisted suicide drugs have led to the ‘burning of patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain.’ Furthermore, a study in the medical journal Anesthesia found that a third of patients took up to 30 hours to die after ingesting assisted suicide drugs, while four percent took seven days to die.”
Support is available to talk to those struggling with thoughts of ending their lives. The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988.
