Sarco, capsule for assisted suicide developed in Switzerland 2021

“Sarco, cápsula para el suicidio asistido”

Sarco, has sparked a controversy regarding its approval. It is a capsule with promising purposes for those who want to end their lives quickly and without suffering. After long legal analyzes to allow the use of it, its legal approval to be used in Switzerland has recently been communicated.

Philip Nitshke, an Australian physicist and humanist, is the creator of this system, on which he has been working for years. Nitshke has led the tireless fight for the right to euthanasia, which was described as 'the Elon Musk of assisted suicide'. The control and activation of the capsule can be carried out by the person who occupies it, providing a painless death through a process in which the patient goes from sleep to death by inhaling nitrogen.

Tocar el tema de la eutanasia es algo tan sensible como delicado; en el tiempo, ha sido objeto de un gran debate social. Suiza, figura entre los países donde la práctica ha sido aprobada y denominada en la región como “suicidio asistido”, concepto que no es exacto para definir eutanasia. 

The difference between assisted suicide and euthanasia is broad, since euthanasia is when a second person is forced to administer death, while in assisted suicide this second person only helps in facilitating the necessary instruments for the patient to carry out his death.

Sarco was created in order to solve this problem, and after several years of its creation, its approval had not been confirmed until now that it has been allowed to be used in Switzerland.

The construction of the capsule can be done with a 3D printerand it is activated from your interior by the person who occupies it. It can be transported to any place where the patient wants to carry out its activation, an action that can be executed by means of a button or at the slightest blink in case the person suffers from paralysis.

Once the capsule is activated, the system fills the interior of the capsule with nitrogen, quickly minimizing oxygen from 21% to 1% in just 30 seconds. During the execution process the person to whom it is applied will experience some disorientation and even slight animation before losing consciousness. The death of the individual will happen in about 5 and 10 minutes later due to the degradation of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Nitschke explicó en una reciente entrevista que “no hay pánico ni sensación de ahogo”, lo que permite que la persona muera de forma tranquila. Actualmente Sarco cuenta con dos prototipos, los cuales no resultan agradables estéticamente y no serán usados para este fin. En Holanda se está desarrollando un tercero para ser puesto en marcha en Suiza durante el 2022.

Sarco still has future options that are under development; among them is the use of a camera that can communicate with people outside the capsule and that through it the consent of this assisted suicide can be recorded; Not being this enough, Nitschke intends to achieve in the improvement of the proposal that it is not necessary to have the presence of a doctor to carry out a psychiatric analysis of the patient.