JM White
Dr Philip Nitschke founded the Voluntary Euthanasia Research Foundation now called Exit International. Assisted dying became legal in New Zealand in November 2021. Three hundred and fifty deaths were expected in the first year, but due to second thoughts when the reality appears – as often occurs – that number is now down to one hundred. It looks like a job for Plank the Modeller.
Dr Nitschke also developed ‘Sarco’, an odd name for a gleaming streamlined pod you can print from a 3-D pattern all by yourself – if you can complete an online questionnaire. Or maybe if you can’t complete an online questionnaire. Whatever. If you pass you get to download the pod pattern and you can make your very own pod which is really a suicide capsule.
When you have prepared everything to your liking, you just hop in, lie down, and press a button to release nitrogen gas that induces a state of hypoxia and eventually, death. There is no off button so you won’t be able to change your mind at the last minute. There probably isn’t any way to re-open the capsule from the inside once you have closed it either. I personally think it would be better to have an automatic release of nitrogen once the lid is closed to stop any panicking from people like me who suffer from claustrophobia. I must contact the good Doctor and suggest that to him.
Eventually, Dr Nitschke intends to streamline the dying process by removing the need for medical professionals to be involved in any capacity at all, thus making the whole procedure a true DIY experience.
But now Nitschke has gone even further, this time with a body implant for people who might develop dementia. He has proposed an implant that would include a button people need to press ‘regularly,’ possibly every day, in order to prevent a poison from being released into their bloodstream if they neglect to press. This would be an implant disaster for me and many people like me who often forget why we are where we are and can’t remember who to ask where we should be. I must remember to avoid having that whatever it is.
To be fair they are not yet implanting these nifty little devices into just anyone – only a ‘potential’ suspect. Dr Nitschke doesn’t say what the criteria are for a ‘potential’ but knowing the genius of the man, and his determination to release even the slightly daffy from the daily habit of living, it may simply be an online questionnaire.
It has not been determined yet what exact kind of poison would be released by the implant.
This guy is insane. A lunatic. I like him.