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The Sarco pod’s inventor has called for the euthanasia device to be introduced in the UK, and has contacted politicians who are campaigning for assisted dying to be legalised, it has been revealed.
Dr Philip Nitschke, the Australian euthanasia advocate behind the capsule, has reportedly been in touch with MSP Liam McArthur, who is seeking to legalise assisted dying in Scotland.
Mr McArthur has put forward legislation that would give mentally competent people aged 16 or over with a terminal condition the right to end their life, pending independent assessments by two doctors.
Dr Nitschke wrote to the Liberal Democrat MSP urging him to introduce the device should the legislation pass, The Telegraph reports.
The Scottish Lib Dems said in a statement that Mr McArthur ‘is not supportive of Dr Nitschke’s proposals’, adding that he did not respond to him.
It comes after arrests were made at the launch of the Sarco in a woodland in Switzerland on Monday, with a 64-year-old American woman believed to be the first person to die in the capsule.
Philip Nitschke is seen inside a ‘suicide pod’ known as ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, July 8, 2024
The Sarco’s inventor Philip Nitschke – often dubbed Dr Death – pictured at a press conference in Zurich on July 17
MSP Liam McArthur has put forward legislation that would give mentally competent people aged 16 or over with a terminal condition the right to end their life
The Sarco is designed to allow the person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes.
According to The Last Resort, the company behind it, some 120 applicants are hoping to use the machine to end their lives, with around a quarter of those on the waiting list said to be British people.
Among those hoping to travel to use the device are a former RAF engineer and his wife, who revealed to the Mail that they had signed up to become the first couple to use a double suicide pod.
Peter and Christine Scott, who have been married for 46 years, made the decision after former nurse Christine, 80, was recently diagnosed with early-stage vascular dementia.
Like the solo pod, The Last Resort said the two-person pod would be constructed using a 3D printer, and could be ready for use as early as January, pending the first successful use of the pod.
Dr Nitschke claimed that the launch on Monday went ‘as expected’, telling Dutch media: ‘My guess is that she lost consciousness within two minutes and that she died after five minutes.’
The woman, believed to be a mother-of-two from the American mid-west, had reportedly been suffering with ‘a very serious illness that involves severe pain’ and had wished to die for ‘at least two years’.
After being notified of her death, police swooped on the forest, where they discovered the woman’s lifeless body inside the pod and arrested several people.
Those detained are said to include Dr Florian Willet, a director of The Last Resort, who is still being held by police.
Fiona Stewart, member of the Last Resort poses next to the Sarco suicide machine in July
In July, Willet said Switzerland was ‘by far the best place’ for the Sarco to be used, due to its ‘wonderful liberal system’.
Assisted dying is illegal in the UK, though support for a change in the law has been rising.
The prime minister has said he supports a change in the law, and is committed to giving MPs a free vote on legalising assisted dying.
The Scottish Lib Dems said Mr McArthur’s bill has received ‘widespread public and growing parliamentary and medical support.’
They added in a statement that Mr McArthur ‘is not supportive of Dr Nitschke’s proposals and has not engaged in any correspondence with him.
‘So many dying people feel abandoned by the current law, forced to take matters into their own hands alone and behind closed doors — the ‘Sarco’ doesn’t solve that problem, it perpetuates it,’ it added.
Swiss law generally allows assisted suicide if the person commits the lethal act themselves.
The ‘Sarco’ pod, which creators say allows its occupant to push a button and trigger their own death
It allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no ‘external assistance’ and those who help the person to die do not do so for ‘any self-serving motive,’ according to a government website.
The device was used on the same day as Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the National Council that she considers the use of the Sarco in Switzerland to be illegal.
‘The Sarco suicide capsule is not legal in two respects,’ Baume-Schneider reportedly said.
‘On one hand, it does not fulfill the demands of the product safety law, and as such, must not be brought into circulation,’ she said.
‘On the other hand, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the article on purpose in the chemicals law.’
Some lawmakers in Switzerland have argued that the law is unclear and have sought to close what they call legal loopholes.
Fiona Stewart, who is married to Nitschke and is a board member and advisor at The Last Resort, said they want Sarco to become an established and accessible option for euthanasia.
Speaking to MailOnline earlier this month, she said: ‘Our hope would be to make it available to suitable people on a regular basis.’
She said the launch of the Sarco would happen soon and that they anticipated an investigation.
Peter and Christine Scott told the Mail earlier this month that they made the decision to end their lives at the same time
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
‘Let’s just hope that the inquiry, the investigation, after it’s just used, goes well, and the public prosecutor of the relevant Canton sees the wisdom in Sarco being just another choice that is available to foreigners in Switzerland,’ she said.
The public prosecutor in Schaffhausen, the canton where the device was used on Monday, said that Sarco’s creators had been warned not to operate it in the region, but that the warning had not been heeded.
‘We warned them in writing,’ prosecutor Peter Sticher told Swiss media. ‘We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.’
The cantonal public prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that it had ‘opened criminal proceedings against several people for inducement and aiding and abetting suicide… and several people have been placed in police custody.’
The planned first launch of Sarco was aborted in July after the first person to travel to Switzerland to use it disappeared.
American Jennifer McLaughlin, 55, was later confirmed to have died after seeking help to die from another assisted dying organization.
A view of 02 detector and the release button for pure nitrogen in the Sarco suicide machine
The Last Resort and its partners Exit International, run by Nitschke, promote Sarco as a free-to-use device which gives people autonomy over their death.
Tested in a workshop in Rotterdam, the 3D-printable capsule cost more than 650,000 euros ($725,000) to research and develop in the Netherlands over 12 years. Future Sarcos could cost around 15,000 euros.
To use the Sarco, the person wishing to die must first pass a psychiatric assessment.
The person climbs into the purple capsule, closes the lid, and is asked automated questions such as who they are, where they are and if they know what happens when they press the button.
In July, Nitschke explained that once the button is pressed, the amount of oxygen in the air plummets from 21 percent to 0.05 percent in less than 30 seconds.
The Sarco monitors the oxygen level in the capsule, the person’s heart rate and the oxygen saturation of the blood.
Nitschke’s Exit International organisation, which owns the Sarco, is a non-profit group funded by donations. The only cost for the user is 18 Swiss francs (£16) for the nitrogen.
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.