First woman dies in ‘suicide capsule’ in Switzerland
First woman dies in ‘suicide capsule’ in Switzerland
In a first, an American woman used a suicide pod to take her own life. The process took place in Switzerland. It's done by pumping in only nitrogen gas, so the person will lose goes dizzy, loses consciousness and eventually dies. Enter futurama memes.
On a pet forum people regularly talk about (and suggest to others) how they euthanize their old / sick rodents at home using carbon-dioxide unlike nitrogen like this capsule uses. I looked into what's the difference and it turns out inhaling pure carbon-dioxide instantly causes panic and the sense of suffocation and it's a horrible way to die. They were even able to cause an panic attack on a person physically uncapable of experiencing fear. There are videos online about killing pigs like this and it's not a pretty sight. Suffice to say I no longer take advice from those people.
That's horrible. Why would anyone think that co2 is in any way an acceptable way of taking a life?
I guess it's slightly more efficient than just putting your pets in an airtight container. But still pretty awful.
Yeah your drive to breathe is based on CO2 in the blood not O2 level. The higher the CO2 the more you feel the need to breathe. That's why the capsule uses nitrogen. You don't respond to the lack of O2 and can still flush the CO2 from your system.
Co2 reaction is highly, highly concentration-dependent. Rodent euthanasia ideally starts around 20% which makes them cranky and sleepy, they go to sleep, then concentration is upped to around 80% and they die very quickly. Yes, they feel bad when they go to sleep, but it is a mild bad and it's all over quickly. Rodent euthanasia horror stories are about getting the concentration wrong, not the co2 itself.
Nitrogen - as long as the flow is strong enough to remove exhaled co2 - won't make anyone cranky, but it takes longer, and the longer it takes the higher the risk of something going wrong with the setup. So, tradeoffs.
There are more and more vets that are using firearms now on farms to euthanize because the drugs they use also cause panic. A 9mm round to the brain instantly incapacitates the animal, they don't even know what happens. It's the kindest way to euthanize your animals, anyone telling you the cocktail of drugs or co2 is more humane is full of shit.
Not to mention that the drug they use, euthanyl is very bad to get into the ecosystem. If you have a pet euthanized then you can't take it home and bury it because the chemical will poison anything that happens to dig up the body and eat it.
Physical trauma makes sense for large animals. If you have 50 lab rats that you need to euthanize, a gassing setup can make more sense than individually whacking them.
The speed can significantly vary with CO2. I don't like it much myself, but due to how hemoglobin works it forces your lungs to work backwards and dump oxygen like you were in the vacuum of space. Unconsciousness is generally very rapid compared to other asphyxiants.
Would I rather die breathing bottled carbon dioxide, or burn to death? Actually given what actually kills most people in fires isn't the burns but smoke inhalation maybe I'll go with the bottle of CO2. What about freezing to death? Might depend on the OAT, if it's like 30 out that would take a long time to expire, but -50?
What a grim line of thought.
I believe freezing to death is considered one of the better ways to go, actually. My understanding is that hypothermia is painful to start but then you are numb and out of it as it progresses.
Hmm yeah, if i happened to have a debilitating disease that require someone else constant care and i can't be independent anymore, i'd also like to end it as well, as sad as it sound. Cool that Switzerland have option for that.
Do i need to specify every time when i said independent i mean without the need of people helping hand to do basic thing just so i don't get harassed in a borderline offensive way? It's akin of getting contacted by reddit mental health care bot.
The future is here.
Re-brand it as a liberty booth and sell it as an improvement to the economy and less social services usage to see them pop up all over the US.
They'd take up that fresh prime Redbox real estate.
I'm generally pro-suicide but its depressing how likely your thing sounds.
Inaccurate. You can't buy anything for 25 cents.
Several people already got arrested, as the capsule hasnt gone through the medical/clinical testing required and because the gas used, nitrogen, isnt allowed to be used in this way medically. A few days ago a Bundesrat (member of the federal executive) just called it illegal. Now we will see, if the (cantonal, then probably the federal) judicative branch says the same.
Imagine what could have happened given this pod's lack of approval by medical authorities. It could have gotten somebody killed!
The pod still has to be tested an approved to meet certain standards and regulations to ensure a dignified passing.
Even something as simple as a small leak could prevent the patient from dying, and they may wake back up with severe brain damage, or failing to properly filter out CO2 would cause tremendous distress before their death, or pressure irregularities may induce or trigger various pains. And so on.
We need this in the US.
Suicide sucks, but let people make an informed decision, explain their rationale to their loved ones (if they want), and take the dignified way out. Having sat in a house, tasting the blood in the air from when my son-in-law took his life with a gun to end the pain of his cancer, I don't want anyone to have to go through that. It has been several years and our family still hasn't healed from that trauma - mostly because of the stigma, and my daughter's request that we just tell everyone he died peacefully in his sleep.
I would have much rather given him a hug, shook his hand and thank him for being such a wonderful presence in my life... and then know that his last moments on earth truly were peaceful, not violent and messy.
Awesome! Good for her. She died on her terms, with dignity. This is how we should see end of life. I want something like this available to me if I get a terminal illness or just age to somewhere past my 70s and wish to die on my terms.
‘The day you die is one of the most important days of your life’, Nitschke says
That’s a chilling way to put it.
It’s great she had the opportunity to end it on her own terms. I hope I also have the same option if I’m ever in a similar situation. Living in daily agony with no hope in sight doesn’t sound like a good life.
Death with dignity should be the same human right as any other freedom.
I think this is valuable work. I like that the operator can choose a setting and see nature when they go. That said, is there a reason this couldn't be a mask instead of a chamber? Seems like that sort of separation from location is undesirable, plus it would be much simpler to manufacture.
Masks have to be fitted and air tight, otherwise they just slowly asphyxiate instead of going into a peaceful slumber.
If a mask partially fails to seal the procedure would not be correct. It needs to be all nitrogen.
Sure, a proper mask fit can be achieved, but a chamber is more comfortable, AND more reliable.
I would think a chamber is easier to accommodate different body sizes and forms, thereby making fitting unnecessary. Also I would assume it is easier/ less stressful on the operator, since they just lay down instead of having something strapped to their face.
Probably comfort. There could be complication if using non-airtight mask, as this method use nitrogen and our air is like 78% nitrogen, could actually take longer for one to go, and airtight mask is uncomfortable. Also they probably don't need too many of these as demand probably won't be there anytime soon, so manufacturing isn't much of a concern.
Good point you and others make about airtightness.
For the manufacturing, I'm primarily thinking about how assisted suicide is illegal in most countries, so the ability for anyone to make it, and to make something small, may have some value versus a large, hard to transport device.
As sad as this topic is, this is a much better way to go than a prolonged miserable painful death where you suffer the last months of a terminal disease.
Terminal or not this is a human way of accepting death.
Imagine your an old 70+/ 80+ couple that are ready to go but together. You can hold your spouses hand, spend time with family, and say your final goodbyes while you are still mentally functioning. Not a burden on anyone or heart broken after losing your partner.
To me, this is a great alternative to dying alone in a cold "retirement home." I know it is not for everyone but, my partner and I have talked about as an option.
I would rather do this than suffer through dementia, if it comes to that.
Its such a difficult topic to write about. You shouldnt glorify it but you also have to respect peoples wish to die. Putting that sort of sincerity into text is hard imo, but the article did a good job at it. Weird that they arrested the photographer tho :/
I cant imagine a much more peaceful way to go under her conditions.
I found it became a lot easier after my dad took almost three days to 'die' after he could no longer really live with his lung, throat and shoulder cancer. I get that dieing sucks ass, but if the alternative is dieing really really slowly, assisted death is really beautiful. Too bad our doctor had moral objections, which is fair for them, but it wasn't to us. We did not have this nitrogen capsule, we just had to wait it out and let our loved one gurgle themselves to death.
That doesn't seem an accurate description of the situation. Yes, doctors and nurses sometimes 'help people along' in their final hours or even days, that is not the same thing as the euthanasia being described here.
You're so very wrong about that. The chemicals used right now for lethal injection fail often, cause undue pain and distress, and often will paralyze you instead of killing you quickly while you slowly suffocate, unable to call for help. Nitrogen has no downsides. This isn't a "techbro" solution. It's a humane one. A guillotine was kinder to the one dying than the current method.
The current method prioritizes minimizing violence and maximizing comfort for spectators over being humane to the one dying. The only reason there is a paralytic in the chemical slurry is because the sleep and lethal chemicals sometimes fail spectacularly and the patient spasms painfully as they die. Their solution wasn't to change the method to be more humane, it was to paralyze them so they don't spasm. They're still in pain. They're still dying slowly. They're still scared. But we don't have to see it, so it's okay.
Nitrogen euthanasia is safe and humane, killing entirely painlessly. For some reason the fact that it's a gas, even an inert one, makes people crazy.
You're allowed to kill yourself in Switzerland, but this capsule uses nitrogen which violates chemical laws.
There are drugs that you're allowed to use.
The laws are clearly outdated. Drugs for lethal injection frequently fail and cause much more pain and distress. Nitrogen has *no downsides." It's like the fact that it's a gas makes people crazy.
but this is not eutanasia since there's no terminal disease, this is just murder.
I think most people can understand her desire to no longer be in constant pain.
It's also a way for an ableist and ageist society to drive vulnerable people to take matters in to our own hands, instead of "forcing" it to act more directly (as opposed to "only" slightly less directly systemically financially and socially oppressing and excluding us), in a kind of "guilt free" eugenics.
Should people have the right to die, and are there some situations where self euthanasia would be the best way to go? Sure. But lets not pretend that sick, disabled, and or old people have nothing to give and are suffering simply for existing as such, and not because society does very little to accommodate, integrate or even accept us. Capitalism frames us as lazy burdens on the system, and if/once we can't contribute to the machine, we (and you, if you become ill, have an accident, or just age) get violently tossed to the margins, our lives made impossible to survive without pain and trauma external to our condition/s.
From what I can find, this capsule costs $20 to use, while existing as an old and or disabled person can cost hundreds to tens of thousands more a year. Making society accessible and inclusive would require a lot of work from people who don't want or care to do it, providing us with this "out" gives them their own.
Be very wary of promoting this as a good solution to people's suffering without taking in to account just how much of that suffering is created by society and its refusal to be inclusive.
You're right that there's too much unnecessary suffering imposed by our societal system. Still, consider that everyone's life eventually ends, and for many when that time comes it would be a blessing to choose it on their own terms.
I know you mean well, but you don't provide solutions of any kind. Simply saying the equivalent of "we should be better to fellow humans" isn't going to change the world. It's a platitude.
How do you propose we help the people currently suffering? We just let them suffer until society figures out how to help them? Unite arms and block suicide machines because "they are an easy way out and we should be helping them instead"? Sure, you're absolutely right, we should be helping them all now, but that's not how change works. It's not immediate. While we figure this stuff out, a bunch of people are going to suffer and die painfully.
Also, even if the cynical ending is "the government promotes suicide to get rid of the weak", I'd argue it's better than suffering until death.
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