Switzerland legalizes assisted suicide machine ‘Sarco’ designed for Euthanasia

In a bizarre development, the ‘Sarco’ machine that facilitates assisted suicide has passed legal scrutiny in Switzerland and is approved for conducting Euthanasia. The machine is said to provide painless death to the individual within less than a minute by causing hypoxia and hypocapnia, (a disorder when oxygen supply at the tissue level becomes extremely low and carbon dioxide in the blood reduces below optimum levels leading to death.)

The machine is shaped like a coffin and the people can kill themselves by just blinking their eyes inside it. The special feature that captures the signal from blinking eyes is designed for people who are terminally ill and suffer from diseases like locked-in syndrome (where the whole body of the patient is paralysed and only eyes can move voluntarily).

Switzerland legally approves ‘Sarco’ suicide machine designed for euthanasia

As per a report by the Independent UK, the co-creator of the euthanasia device termed the device to be the most peaceful and painless death givers to date. The coffin-shaped device also consists of a detachable base, which is biodegradable and can serve as a coffin for the deceased.

Despite the ongoing debate on assisted suicide practices, many countries like Switzerland have legalised them, keeping in mind that these practices provide a form of liberation to the terminally ill patients, who are advised to be killed by physicians and the patient themself ask for liberation.

Euthanasia is permitted in Switzerland, and around 1,300 people were believed to have used euthanasia organisations like Dignitas and Exit last year. Both of these organisations, however, use edible liquid sedative medicines to put people into a severe coma and then kill them.

Dr Philip Nitschke, called "Dr Death," devised the Sarco "suicide machine," which is short for "sarcophagus." The gadget, as its name implies, functions as a grave for its inhabitant, as the biodegradable capsule is detachable from the machine's base and can serve as a coffin. The latest device has faced criticism from various ends on the used method of killing, while some people have lashed the machine as a glorified ‘gas chamber’, others have accused it of glorifying suicides.

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