He offers to ship a 3D-printed machine anywhere to those willing to die and employ artificial intelligence to evaluate candidates’ mental status.

Since Switzerland legalized a new way to die by assisted suicide in 2021, Philip Nitschke has been advertising his death machine Sarco tirelessly in every country that allows euthanasia. 

Nitschke, an Australian humanist, author and physician, founded in 1997 a nonprofit called Exit International campaigning for the right to die in assisted suicide. In 2017, he invented a machine that causes death through inert gas asphyxiation. This euthanasia pod consists of a 3D-printed detachable capsule mounted on a stand with a canister containing liquid nitrogen. 

Philip Nitschke. Credit: BBC

The Sarco – from sarcophagus – decreases rapidly the levels of oxygen inside the coffin-like capsule from 21% to just 1% in order to prevent panic, sense of suffocation, or struggling before unconsciousness. 

Exit International can ship the pod to any country where euthanasia is legal and the Sarco is licensed, installing the device in an environment desired by the client and making his or her last moments “pleasant”.

“Death for everyone” policy

However, there’s a hitch in Nitschke’s marketing plan. The Sarco user, who eventually dies without pain, controls the entire process. This is very different from the medically-assisted suicide that most euthanasia-friendly countries have accepted. 

Conventional assisted-suicide methods generally involve a chemical substance administered by trained staff in a medical institution. A prior psychiatric review by a living physician is mandatory before the euthanasia authorization is given. The patient cannot take his or her life alone.

Nitschke wants this stage removed or entrusted to artificial intelligence.

“We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves. Our aim is to develop an artificial-intelligence screening system to establish the person’s mental capacity. Naturally there is a lot of skepticism, especially on the part of psychiatrists,”⁠ he told the medical website SwissInfo. 

How does the “death pod” work?

Access to the Sarco is 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 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 scene before passing away, for example, in a nature setting.

The user dies at the time and location of his/her choice, lying comfortably and finally dying without pain with a push of the button, the inventor said.

The Sarco pod is activated by the user from inside. On activation, 4 liters of liquid nitrogen floods the capsule and causes the oxygen level to drop silently down to 1% in less than one minute while maintaining a low level of carbon dioxide.

So far only Switzerland has authorized the use of the Sarco for suicide. Philip Nitschke faces strong criticism from the largest part of the medical community both for his voluntary suicide ideas and the death machine.