Sarco Capsule, World's First 3D-Printed Euthanasia Machine, Ends Life With A Click

Did you ever think you could end your life by just the press of a button? Well, there is no dearth in the advancement of technology, and when it comes to euthanasia, it sparks more interest.

Dr. Philip Nitschke, the founder and director of Exit International has developed a hi-tech euthanasia device named the Sarco capsule. It is a reusable 3D-printed euthanasia machine which would let anyone end their life by the press of a button.

The 70-year-old Dr. Nitschke, popularly known recently as "Dr. Death," revealed his plans to launch the Sarco capsule next year which would be the world’s first 3D-printed euthanasia machine. It is an easy to use painless machine that would help people bring an end to their lives.

The device is designed in two parts. One part is a reusable machine base and the other is a capsule that can be detached and used as a coffin. The machine that has been developed in the Netherlands by Dr. Nitschke and Engineer Alexander Bannink, is designed in such a way that it can be 3D printed and assembled in any given location. According to a release by Exit International, the device’s design would be free, made open-source, and available on the internet.

It is easy to use the Sarco capsule. It just requires an access code. Anyone who wants to end their life is required to complete an online mental questionnaire in order to obtain a 4-digit code that will open the capsule. Once it is opened, the person can get inside and lie down inside the device and start it either by pressing a button, voice activation or a series of blinks. Once the lid is closed, the machine gets filled with liquid nitrogen which in turn lowers the oxygen level. Within a few minutes the person inside is dead. Later, the capsule can be removed to be used as a coffin.

Liquid nitrogen evaporates quickly and the gas occupies 700 times the volume of the liquid, displacing all oxygen in the confined space it expands in. But since about 80 percent of the air we breathe is nitrogen, people don't notice the lack of oxygen until they pass out, Peter Barham, a physicist at the H H Wills Physics Laboratory in Bristol, England, told the Livescience website in February. He was explaining how a sheriff's deputy in Augusta, Georgia, had died while trying to save an employee inside a sperm bank where nitrogen tanks were somehow opened.

Nitrogen, a gas at room temperature, turns into a liquid at minus 196 degrees Celsius (minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit). At that temperature, liquid nitrogen can freeze body tissue almost instantaneously and can be both painful and dangerous. But possibly the person inside the Sarco Capsule never comes in direct contact with the liquid nitrogen which would have boiled off to gas once released. Exit International said in its statement on the Sarco Capsule that death would be "peaceful."

Theoretically, even if the human body were to come in contact with the liquid nitrogen, it is possible to avoid this painful freezing because of the Leidenfrost effect, where a protective layer of relatively warmer gas forms around the body preventing heat transfer.

According to the release by Exit, the development of this device would help a person end his or her life peacefully. "Sarco does not use any restricted drugs, or require any special expertise such as the insertion of an intravenous needle. Anyone who can pass the entry test can enter the machine and legally end their life," Dr. Nitschke said.

He explained that the need for such a machine was due to an increase in demand for choice among the elderly, as the difficulties and legal issues associated with the best end of life drugs were many.

According to the Daily Mail, Dr. Nitschke told the publication that he has an accurate model of the device. However, presently, he is working to create a trial product which would be ready for accurate testing by early 2018.

He also stated that the space age design of the Sarco capsule was done with a thought. "It’s a vehicle to take you on a trip to the next plane of existence. That was incorporated in the design," he said, the Daily Mail reported.

Dr. Nitschke hopes that euthanasia clinics, like the ones in Switzerland, will use the newly designed hi-tech device. He is not going to charge for the Sarco design and said that if at any point in life he has to consider euthanasia, he would chose the Sarco capsule. Talking about the Sarco capsule and his plans to make it accessible to all at a conference in Canada two months ago, he said that people across the world are showing interest in the hi-tech device.

"I’m a bit attracted to the nature of the Sarco, and making it a symbolic event," Dr. Nitschke said.