The ‘Suicide Pod’ Claims Its First Victim, Delighting Its Inventor

[Michie]

The American woman, who has yet to be identified, was 64 years old.

This photograph shows a view of the Sarco assisted suicide capsule, during a press conference organised by the "Last Resort", a Swiss human rights non-profit association focused on assisted suicide, in Zurich on July 17, 2024. (photo: Arnd Wiegmann / Getty )

Once inside the sealed chamber of the futuristic Sarco “suicide pod” the woman was given an eerie command: “If you want to die, press this button.”

So she did, and the chamber flooded with nitrogen gas. Her oxygen levels plummeted, causing her to pass out. She was dead within minutes.

The woman, who has yet to be identified, was 64 years old. An American suffering from a severely compromised immune system, she’d flown to Switzerland to obtain an assisted suicide using the hideously sleek invention, which had been placed beneath a canopy of trees in the Swiss woodlands.

Her death earlier last week marks the first time someone is known to have used the pod for its intended purposes. Reports indicate she was suffering from a very serious illness for at least two years. Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world where foreigners can travel for the purpose of obtaining an assisted suicide. 

Continued below.

The ‘Suicide Pod’ Claims Its First Victim, Delighting Its Inventor

The American woman, who has yet to be identified, was 64 years old.

www.ncregister.com

 

[mourningdove~]

This way of dying sounds absolutely horrible.

 

[Wolseley]

Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) wrote a book entitled The King in Yellow, published in 1895. It was a work of dystopian fiction, an anthology of stories loosely centering around a fictional book of the same title, that drove anyone who read it to madness.

One of the things in Chamber's book (which was set in an alternative future) was the introduction of "suicide booths", which people could enter and end it all. The story in question, called "The Repairer of Reputations", outlines the installment of the first one in New York City, which was accompanied by ribbon-cutting fanfare and public ceremony.

Readers in 1895 chuckled at Chambers' foolish concept, knowing fully well that nobody would ever obviously go willingly into a suicide booth---the whole idea was ludicrous.

I wonder what they'd think if they were around now?

 

[Michie]

The article reminded me of Futurama (animation) and Soylent Green in the scene where Edward G. Robinson walked into the suicide facility to die. Although this pod does not sound anywhere as glamorous as that scene was.

 

[Wolseley]

The article reminded me of Futurama (animation) and Soylent Green in the scene where Edward G. Robinson walked into the suicide facility to die. Although this pod does not sound anywhere as glamorous as that scene was.

There was an old episode of Star Trek that incorporated the same idea, as well.

 

[RileyG]

Awful. Human life is NEVER disposable.

May God have mercy on us all.

 

[Michie]

Suicide Pods and the Trivialization of Death | Carl R. Trueman

The suicide pod has the smooth aesthetics of the Apple age. It presents death as an attractive, consumer option.

www.firstthings.com