Scientist Who Developed New Pods for Death With Dignity Pushes for Legality
(UnitedVoice.com) – People have debated the issue of doctor-assisted suicide across the world. Proponents argue people should have the right to choose to die if they want to, especially those suffering from fatal diseases or painful chronic conditions. Critics believe doctors take an oath to save people’s lives.
The procedure is legal in several countries, including in multiple US states. One of the doctors who supports the procedure has created something dubbed a “suicide pod,” that he claims will allow people to die with dignity.
Suicide Pod
Dr. Philip Nitschke, dubbed “Dr. Death,” created the Sarco pod. He has promised the people who use it to end their lives won’t feel any pain. The doctor created the machine after meeting the attorneys of a man named Tony Nicklinson, who wanted to know if any technology existed to allow him to end his life. Nicklinson had suffered a stroke in 2005, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. In 2012, he died of pneumonia.
The way the futuristic-looking pods work is the patient lies inside while nitrogen floods the chamber. The gas causes dizziness, but the person falls unconscious within a minute. It takes about 10 minutes for the individual to die. The Sarco website claims the machine creates “conditions for a peaceful, even euphoric death.”
The website says the benefits of the machine are that it doesn’t require individuals to find drugs that might be difficult to source. Also, individuals don’t need any specialized skills to operate the pod and needn’t ask doctors to insert IV catheters or provide cannulas. There are also emergency buttons in case the patient changes their mind.
Push for Use
Nitschke wants the United Kingdom to allow patients to use the pods if they want to end their lives. However, voluntary assisted suicide is illegal in the Commonwealth. There was a bill introduced in Scotland to allow people to end their own lives called the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill. It would allow people in the country to choose when they want to die if they are terminally ill and mentally fit to choose.
LAD Bible reported Care Not Killing CEO Dr. Gordon Macdonald is vehemently against Nitschke’s pods. He said people would “be shocked and appalled” at the doctor’s “attempt to lobby for the use of his personal gas chamber” in Scotland if lawmakers decide to legalize “assisted suicide and euthanasia.”
Do you support assisted suicide? What do you think about the doctor’s pods?
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