Sarco, the assisted suicide capsule developed by the non-profit organization Exit International, is now legally approved in Switzerland. It aims to replace the ingestion of sodium pentobarbital in liquid form currently used for medical assistance at the end of life.
Switzerland raises few legal obstacles to physician-assisted suicide. Every year, hundreds of people (about 1300 in 2020) most often those with a terminal illness choose to end their lives by this method. Other European countries, including Belgium, Germany or the Netherlands have implemented similar policies.
Recall that "passive euthanasia" involves the cessation of medical interventions intended to prolong the patient's life (refusal of aggressive treatment). In physician-assisted suicide, a patient chooses to die with the assistance of a medical professional who uses active means to painlessly end the patient's life.
Currently, the method used is the ingestion of sodium pentobarbital in liquid form. The person falls asleep in two to five minutes, before plunging into a deep coma and turning off. While the technique promises a "peaceful death", it does require the taking of controlled substances.
Here, Australia-based Exit International has developed a "standalone capsule" for assisted suicide. Named Sarco and printed in 3D, it has just been legally approved in Switzerland. According to SwissInfo, Dr. Philip Nitschke, the former physicist behind the booth, had indeed asked for a "high-level opinion" on the legality of the device's use last year by the committee. medical examination of the country.
According to Dr. Nitschke, this "death capsule" can be "activated from within by the person intending to die and "towed anywhere “.
Once the patient is inside, the cabin will be flooded with nitrogen , rapidly reducing the oxygen level to 1% in thirty seconds approximately (compared to 21% in normal times).
“The person will feel a bit disoriented and may feel slightly euphoric before losing consciousness “, emphasizes Dr. Nitschke. “Death will then occur, approximately five to ten minutes later, from hypoxia and hypocapnia (deprivation of oxygen and carbon dioxide, respectively). There will be no panic, no feeling of suffocation “.
Note that for now, a doctor must always be present beforehand to perform a psychiatric examination, but eventually, Dr. Nitschke plans to develop an artificial intelligence screening system. “Naturally there is a lot of skepticism, especially from psychiatrists “, agrees the inventor. “In the idea, we could imagine a person taking an online test before receiving a code to access the Sarco “.
According to Exit International, the first operational unit could be deployed as early as next year. In the meantime, some features, such as a camera needed for communication and recording informed consent, still need to be developed.
