The Sarco pod (also known as Pegasos and has been referred to as a "suicide pod") is a

euthanasia device A euthanasia device is a machine engineered to allow an individual to die quickly with minimal pain. The most common devices are those designed to help terminally ill people die by voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide without prolonged pain ...

or machine consisting of a

3D-printed 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...

detachable capsule mounted on a stand that contains a canister of liquid

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

to die by

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

through

inert gas asphyxiation Inert gas asphyxiation is a form of asphyxiation which results from breathing a physiologically inert gas in the absence of oxygen, or a low amount of oxygen, rather than atmospheric air (which is composed largely of nitrogen and oxygen). Examples ...

. "Sarco" is short for "

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

". It is used in conjunction with an

inert gas An inert gas is a gas that does not readily undergo chemical reactions with other chemical substances and therefore does not readily form chemical compounds. The noble gases often do not react with many substances and were historically referred to ...

(

) which decreases oxygen levels rapidly which prevents panic, sense of

suffocation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...

and struggling before

unconsciousness Unconsciousness is a state in which a living individual exhibits a complete, or near-complete, inability to maintain an consciousness, awareness of self and environment or to respond to any human or environmental Stimulus (physiology), stimulus. ...

, known as the

hypercapnic alarm response Hypercapnia (from the Greek ''hyper'' = "above" or "too much" and ''kapnos'' = "smoke"), also known as hypercarbia and CO2 retention, is a condition of abnormally elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the blood. Carbon dioxide is a gaseous pro ...

caused by the presence of high

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

concentrations in the blood. The Sarco was invented by euthanasia campaigner

Philip Nitschke Philip Haig Nitschke (; born 8 August 1947) is an Australian humanist, author, former physician, and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. He campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Austra ...

in 2017. Nitschke said in 2021 that he sought and received legal advice about the device's legality in Switzerland.

History

The Sarco is an expansion of the

hypoxic death Hypoxia means a lower than normal level of oxygen, and may refer to: Reduced or insufficient oxygen * Hypoxia (environmental), abnormally low oxygen content of the specific environment * Hypoxia (medical), abnormally low level of oxygen in the t ...

provided by a

suicide bag A suicide bag, also known as an exit bag or hood, is part of a euthanasia device consisting of a large plastic bag with a drawcord used to commit suicide through inert gas asphyxiation. It is usually used in conjunction with a flow of an inert g ...

. Many people will not consider euthanasia by suicide bag for aesthetic reasons, or may feel claustrophobic inside a bag. Nitschke calls this the "plastic bag factor". The Sarco was developed to address these objections.

Mechanics

Access to the Sarco will be controlled by an online test to gauge mental fitness. If applicants pass, they receive an access code to a Sarco device that works for 24 hours. Users of the Sarco can choose either a dark or transparent view from the capsule. The transparent view would be chosen if they wish to transport the machine to a particular location to see a certain vista from the machine. The inventor feels that "where you die is certainly an important factor". The capsule of Sarco provides for a rapid decrease in

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

level while maintaining a low level of

. On activation, of liquid nitrogen causes the oxygen level to drop silently to less than 5% in less than one minute. According to Nitschke, 'The occupant presses the button and the capsule is filled with nitrogen. They will feel a bit dizzy but will then rapidly lose consciousness and die'.

Design and manufacture

The design of the device was a collaboration between Nitschke and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

er Alexander Bannink. Sarco is 3D-printed in sections measuring . The design software allows for devices of different sizes to be made according to the client's dimensions. Nitschke has said that the design is intended to resemble that of a spaceship, in order to give users the feel that they are traveling to the "great beyond". Nitschke planned to release the

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

plans for the Sarco by 2019.

Reactions

Thaddeus Pope, a bioethicist at the

Mitchell Hamline School of Law Mitchell Hamline School of Law is a private law school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and offers full- and part-time legal education for its Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree. History Mitchell Hamlin ...

, said the debate over Sarco may result in a new way of approaching end-of-life options by legislators, saying that "That might be bigger or more important than the actual Sarco itself," and that Dr. Nitschke was "illustrating the limitations of the medical model and forcing us to think." Critics have described the device as "just a glorified gas chamber", and others have raised concerns that it is glamourising suicide, and could lead to " suicide contagions" that inspire additional deaths.

References

External links