The overall objective of technology is to make life easy. Nevertheless, a medical doctor has changed the definition to include making dying also easy for people who want to kill themselves. That is the Idea behind the development of the death machine by Dr. Philip Nitschke who sees himself as the Elon Musk of assisted suicide.
Globally, there are more than a million people each year that attempt committing suicide. Of these, only 800 thousand get to succeed. Many of these people want to go as painlessly as possible, and that is the whole idea behind the death machine; to help those that want to kill themselves achieve it with no pains.
Here are 7 things you need to know about the death machine:
1. The man behind the Project
Dr. Philip Nitschke who is the inventor of the machine which he calls Sarco is a 70-year-old doctor who is the first physician to administer a lethal dose that saw the first person to die under Australia’s assisted suicide law. Soon, however, the law was turned.
Then in his 50s, Nitschke will go on to administer this to 3 other people. This has made him to view death differently especially for people who want to die with dignity.
See Also: 8 Worst Ways To Die- The Science Behind Why They Are Bad
He is the founder of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International which is a group that fights for the rights of people to end their lives when in pain or when they are suffering. He founded the group after the Australian government overturned the assisted suicide law. Thanks to this, he has earned himself the nickname of “Dr. Death”. He even published a book that helps people to commit painless suicide.
2. The Death Machine
Nitschke invented the Sarco which is a 3D printed machine that he believes can help people who want to end their lives to die peacefully. The way the machine works is that once someone gets into it, one has the power to end his life or decide to keep living. If one decides to end it, one can just lie in the Death machine which has nitrogen gas which will make one ger disoriented in minutes. Soon, one will lose consciousness and within minutes again, one is gone.
The machine is designed like some sort of a coffin, and it uses an access code which is only valid for 24 hours. It is sent to one as soon as one gets the machine. It comes with a reusable machine base as well as a capsule that can be detached and used as a coffin.
The way the death machine is designed is with a glass in the front which will allow one to decide the last thing one wants to see before finally dying. As such, one can decide to have it facing the waterfalls, a picture, the faces of family members, or anything one desires.
3. Who can use the machine?
For now, it is not everyone that will be able to make use of this machine to end his or her life. For example, you have to be of a sane mind to realize that death is permanent before it can be used on one. In the future, the inventor believes that the Artificial Intelligence would be used to determine the sanity of one. For now, however, an online questionnaire will be used.
People with depression and those suffering from illnesses that will make them not to know what they are doing cannot use the machine. But then, those who have these problems but can think properly will be able to use the machine.
More so, there is an age limit to those who can make use of the machine according to Nitschke. Unless one is up to 50 years old, one may not be able to use the machine. The age is according to him, is to appease to the United States.
4. Why it is a Terrible Idea
It makes death very easy for people who may normally find solutions for their problems. More so, the death machine is a terrible idea because while the challenges people are facing may be temporary as most of our problems, death is permanent.
More so, it is a very terrible idea because it is a way of promoting death to very vulnerable people for the purpose of promoting some form of ideologies and probably financial gains. Many people have described the idea of the product as very worrying most especially as some companies are promoting it.
5. What The Law Says
While there are some countries that make it easy for suffering people or terminally ill people to end their lives, many others are against it. For example, the Netherlands has a law that allows for physician-assisted suicide. Also, in the United States, while there are states that allow for it including California, Oregon, Colorado among others, there are many more that are against it. That stated, there are more countries that are against physician-assisted suicide.
More so, every country considers suicide as a crime. Hence, it will be illegal for one to just decide that one is tired of living and so one wants to end it all. There are still people in the country who are strongly opposed to the idea of people ending their lives for whatever reason.
6. Coming to the market
By 2019, people would be able to purchase the death machine on their own from the internet. The first machine is expected to be produced in the Netherlands because the country doesn’t see it as illegal for one to end one’s life. One will need no assistance to use it and the machine can only be controlled from the inside.
The creator believes that it will help people to die “The Sarco makes it possible to die with elegance and style.” Is there actually anything like dying in elegance and style?
7. What if you change your mind?
For people who may decide to change their minds before those first few minutes would elapse before one goes into unconsciousness, there is an emergency window that one can click to let in oxygen into the capsule.
