'If You Want To Die, Press Button': Suicide Pods To Be Used ‘Soon’ In Switzerland

The pod called Sarco, which is a futuristic-looking 3D-printed capsule, was first introduced in 2019 for assisted suicide in Switzerland. It works by filling its chamber with nitrogen and reducing oxygen levels rapidly once a button is activated from inside.

The process would allow the person to lose consciousness and die in approximately 10 minutes.

Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since the 1940s, provided it is carried out by someone with no direct interest in the person's death. It has also made the country what some call a “death tourism” magnet, according to Reuters.

The person wishing to die must first pass a psychiatric assessment of their mental capacity -- a key legal requirement.

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.

"'If you want to die', the voice says in the processor, 'Press this button'," said Sarco inventor Philip Nitschke, a leading global figure in right-to-die activism, as quoted by news agency AFP.

He explained that once the button is pressed, the amount of oxygen in the air plummets from 21 per cent to 0.05 per cent in less than 30 seconds.

"Within two breaths of air of that low level of oxygen, they will start to feel disorientated, uncoordinated and slightly euphoric before losing consciousness," Nitschke said.

"They will then stay in that state of unconsciousness for... around about five minutes before death will take place," he added.

The Sarco monitors the oxygen level in the capsule, the person's heart rate and the oxygen saturation of the blood.

"We will be able to see quite quickly when that person has died," said Nitschke.

As for someone changing their mind at the very last minute, Nitschke said: "Once you press that button, there's no way of going back."