LETTER FROM GENEVA

It's a blue, human-sized capsule with a sleek design, with aerodynamics that suggest that it must move well through time and space. Presented in Switzerland in recent days after two years of controversy, the object is making waves. Not least because the journey it offers is one you'll never come back from.

Named "Sarco" (for sarcophagus), the box allows a person to commit suicide without outside help. Inside, the candidate for voluntary death simply presses a button, releasing nitrogen. The saturation of nitrogen causes the individual to lose consciousness due to lack of oxygen, followed by painless death in a matter of seconds. The method requires no poison to be swallowed or injected into the veins. And because the materials of which "Sarco" is made are biodegradable, it can also be used as a coffin.

The "launch" of the device will take place in Switzerland over the next few weeks. The first candidate, a terminally ill patient, has already arrived in the Swiss Confederation for his final journey, according to Philip Nitschke, the doctor behind the project.  He was described by Zurich daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung as an "old Australian euthanasia activist." This is not Nitschke's first venture. The 76-year-old, who sees himself as a humanist champion of liberal assisted suicide practices, believes that adults with full cognitive capacity should have the right to the peaceful death of their choice, even if they are in good health.

Nitschke's career has been marked by a series of debatable "firsts" and inevitable controversies. Between 1995 and 1997, for example, he was the first practitioner in the world to carry out lethal injections on terminally ill patients; four euthanasias in the Northern Territories, before the Supreme Court in Canberra invalidated the possibility. To this end, he invented the first "salvation machine." Those wishing to die pressed a button on a laptop computer, triggering the intravenous administration of the lethal drug. The device is now in the British Science Museum.

Nitschke later founded the Exit International organization to support his theses and projects. In 2019, he published The Peaceful Pill, a book that both de-dramatizes and promotes assisted suicide. It includes practical advice on poisons and gases. The book is banned in most countries but is readily available on the Internet. A fierce and provocative activist, the Australian doctor had also devised a plastic bag that could be slipped over the head and sealed. Nitrogen enters the bag through a hose. Shortly afterwards, he came into open conflict with his country's authorities and medical bodies, who wanted to regulate his activities. Angered, he burned his medical license in 2015 and emigrated to the Netherlands in the process. Why is he now in Switzerland?

You have 48.64% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.