People who use the Sarco suicide pod will hear a hair-raising eight-word message before they press a button to end their own life.
The capsule is designed to allow the person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, causing hypoxia and death soon after.
After pressing the button, it takes a total of ten minutes for a user to die – shortly after they lose consciousness.
Australian creator, Philip Nitschke – nicknamed Doctor Death by right-to-life opponents – explained a chilling message will sound within the 3D capsule.
After entering the machine, the person inside will hear a voice say: ‘If you want to die, press this button,’ according to AFP.
A view of the Sarco suicide machine, a 3D-printed capsule that gives the user the ultimate control over the timing of her/his death
The pod works by replacing air, which is 21 per cent oxygen and 79 per cent nitrogen, with 100 per cent nitrogen. This swiftly renders the occupant unconscious and they then stop breathing in a process that takes less than ten minutes
A view shows the login screen and release button for pure nitrogen in the Sarco suicide machine
There are several ways in which the process can be activated within the pod, including eye movement and voice control for those who have less mobility.
However once the pod is activated, there is no way to stop or reverse the process, First Post reports.
This comes shortly after a former RAF engineer and his wife said they were signing up to become the first British couple to use the double suicide pod, which is set to be launched later this year.
Peter and Christine Scott, who have been married for 46 years, made the decision after former nurse Christine, 80, was diagnosed with early-stage vascular dementia.
The couple want to travel to Switzerland to die in each other’s arms in the death capsule – known as the Sarco – to mark the end of their long and happy marriage.
In an emotional family meeting the pair shared their fears of spending their older years in a failing NHS as well as losing their home and life savings to expensive care costs.
Following this summit, their son and daughter reluctantly said they’ll respect their choice.
Peter, 86, and Christine, who have six grandchildren, are now in the process of registering with The Last Resort, a Swiss-based organisation that offers assisted dying in the Sarco, unveiled in July.
The Scots say they will wait until the new twin model of the machine is launched later this year.
Users will hear a chilling message which says ‘If you want to die, press this button,’ according to AFP (Pictured: An 02 detector and the release button for pure nitrogen in the Sarco suicide machine)
Peter and Christine Scott, who have been married for 46 years, made the decision to sign up to use the double suicide pod which is due to be launched later this year
The couple made the decision after former nurse Christine, 80, was diagnosed with early-stage vascular dementia several weeks ago (Pictured: Peter and Chris Scott about 35 years ago)
In an frank interview at their Suffolk village home, they previously revealed their plans in the hope of lending weight to the campaign to make assisted dying in the UK legal.
‘We have had long, happy, healthy, fulfilled lives but here we are in old age and it does not do nice things to you,’ Peter said.
‘The idea of watching the slow degradation of Chris’s mental abilities in parallel to my own physical decline is horrific to me.
‘Obviously I would care for her to the point I could not, but she has nursed enough people with dementia during her career to be adamant she wants to remain in control of herself and her life.
‘Assisted dying gives her that opportunity and I would not want to go on living without her.
‘We understand other people may not share our feelings and we respect their position. What we want is the right to choose. I find it deeply depressing we can’t do that here in the UK.
‘Yet look at the alternative. The chances of getting prompt NHS treatment for the ailments of old age seem pretty remote so you end up trapped by infirmity and pain.
‘I don’t want to go into care, to be lying in bed dribbling and incontinent – I don’t call that a life.
‘Finally, the Government swoops in to take your savings and your house to pay for it all.’
Australian-born Philip Nitschke (Pictured), who created the device has been nicknamed Doctor Death by right-to-life opponents
Philip Nitschke lies down in a ‘suicide pod’ known as ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, July 8, 2024
The Sarco was invented at the request of British stroke victim Tony Nicklinson who was left conscious but unable to move or speak following a stroke
Currently Peter is wrestling with all the paperwork required for the full application.
He is fearful regarding Christine’s application since securing assisted suicide for dementia sufferers is harder than for people with other illnesses, such as, terminal cancer.
The Sarco was initially invented at the request of British stroke victim Tony Nicklinson who was left conscious but unable to move or speak following a stroke.
He approached Nitschke to make a death pod that could be operated by the blink of an eye, the only communication left to him.
Nicklinson, who begged the courts to be legally allowed to die but was refused, eventually starved himself to death in 2012, before the Sarco was created
More recently, the first person to ever used the device and pressed the button ‘almost immediately’ according to the pod’s creator.
The capsule was situated in a woodland near a cabin in Merishausen in northern Switzerland with the pod’s window allowing the 64-year-old woman to see the trees before she died.
‘It looked exactly as we expected it to look. My guess is that she lost consciousness within two minutes and that she died after five minutes,’ Dr Philip Nitschke told Dutch media.
‘We saw sudden, small contractions and movements of the muscles in her arms, but she was probably already unconscious by then.’
The user is thought to be a mother-of-two from America’s mid-west, who had been enduring a ‘very serious illness’ with ‘severe pain’.
The woman had reportedly wished to die for ‘at least two years, according to Dutch media.
Police attended the scene after being notified of her death, and they arrested several people thereafter.
Among those who have been reportedly apprehended is a director of The Last Resort, the firm behind the Sarco, as well as two lawyers and a newspaper photographer who had been taking pictures of the pod.
The public prosecutor in the Schaffhausen canton claimed Sarco’s creators had been warned not to use the device in their region.
‘We warned them in writing,’ prosecutor Peter Sticher said. ‘We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.’
According to Dutch daily newspaper de Volksrant, which had been following the case, the woman who died in the machine made an oral statement to The Last Resort saying it was her own wish to end her life.
- UK: For help and support, call the Samaritans for free from a UK phone, completely anonymously, on 116 123 or go to samaritans.org.
- US: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
