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Created by an Australian doctor, Sarco, a capsule allowing suicide was to be used for the first time in Switzerland this week. A project interrupted, due to a controversy. Drift or progress? Dr. Alexis Burnod, a palliative care doctor gives us his opinion.
It looks like a futuristic capsule, but it’s not a space trip that Sarco is offering you. The device invented by Philip Nithschke, a 76-year-old Australian who heads the pro-euthanasia group Exit International intends to make it easier for you… to commit suicide.
A capsule to… commit suicide
According to its promoters, this invention made it possible to help people die without any pain, comfortably installed in a capsule: by simply pressing a button, the person wishing to end their life could release nitrogen, a gas that causes loss of consciousness and then death by asphyxiation.
To take the project (or cynicism) to its conclusion, a duo model, designed for couples who want to die together, is currently in production. The Last Resort, the association promoting the capsule, even believes that it could eventually be manufactured by a 3D printer, for a “DIY suicide”. The inventor, however, does not elaborate on the criteria for accessing his device, which clearly does not require any medical consideration.
Refused this week in Switzerland
Despite the controversy and the many questions that this new invention may raise, the Swiss newspaper New Zurich newspaper had announced that the Swiss canton of Valais was preparing for a world first this week. But shortly afterwards, the cantonal doctor announced that the local authorities had finally decided to ban the device. The country, which is nevertheless open to assisted suicide, is ultimately not convinced. The authorities are waiting to have “more detailed information and details about the device and its use”.
This is not the first time that the possible arrival of the “Sarco” has caused a lively controversy among our Swiss neighbours, recalls The weather. In 2022, a previous attempt and the controversy that followed had already caused the attempt to be cancelled. One of the major problems remains that today the Swiss formula for assisted suicide is that people can resort to it as long as they are victims of “intolerable suffering”. Which no longer seems to be the case with sarco.
Dr Alexis Burnod: “The continuity of a pro-suicide movement that is gaining ground in the West”
Is “Sarco” the idea of a crank, or does it have a chance of actually developing as a solution, an ultimate choice? To discuss this, Doctissimo contacted Dr. Alexis Burnod, who practices palliative medicine at the Curie Institute. Between curiosity and disillusioned reaction, the doctor gives us his point of view.
“We have known about the device for 5 years since it was presented at a conference on the end of life. But I did not necessarily expect it to be commercialized. However, I am not surprised. It is the logical continuation of a Western movement that increasingly advocates for the promotion of suicide. We are in that situation today.” the doctor laments.
In France too, without having the right to such a system, the expert recalls that in the last discussions on end-of-life assistance in the National Assembly, the more hours passed, the more proposals to broaden access followed one another: to disabled people, without prognosis, without period for reflection…
“We can clearly see that behind a discourse that can be understandable, that of controlling one’s end a little more when one is in a difficult situation, there is now a project, a business, a pro-suicide current of thought that is taking hold” regrets the expert.
Thinking about the end of life with more nuance
What the doctor also fears is the impression that this type of announcement gives: “We are in an increasingly violent world where bringing nuance and consultation becomes complicated and where vulnerability must be eliminated. It becomes difficult in this case to defend the values of ethics of care, solidarity, helping the vulnerable person, making them want to live… I am sad that we are heading towards this, but ultimately not surprised” he concludes.