This assisted suicide machine is not a joke

September 27, 2024 26 Reactions

Although she discourages it, crowds at Kamala Harris's rallies chant: “Lock him up. Lock him up.” Crowds at Trump’s rallies had the same chant for Hillary Clinton.

I wish the media and the police had a similar fervour about locking up Philip Nitschke, the world’s best-known assisted suicide activist. Dr Nitschke is an Australian doctor and physicist who has dedicated his life to promoting “rational suicide”. The most recent casualty of his obsession is an unnamed 64-year-old woman from the American mid-West. She became the first person to use Sarco, the latest of his suicide inventions, to kill herself in Switzerland.

Nitschke’s organisation explained that she "had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise." Was the pain which drove her to suicide physical or mental? We don’t know.

Sarco is a sleek airtight pod. The client – or is he or she a patient? or a suicidee? or a victim? – gets comfy inside. The lid is closed. The client pushes a button and the capsule fills with nitrogen gas. The client goes to sleep and never wakes up.

The lid is transparent and the base is elevated and tilted, so the patient can take a last look at the world. Afterwards, the pod can also be used as a coffin – a seamless transition from smelling the roses to pushing up daisies.

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No one could question Nitschke’s energy and ingenuity. Sarco is only the most sophisticated of his efforts to help people to shuffle off this mortal coil. In 1996, he created “the deliverance machine”, a laptop computer connected to a syringe driver filled with a lethal drug. In 2008, he created a suicide bag which kills with nitrogen. In 2009, he invented a barbiturate testing machine so that people could ensure that their lethal drugs were still active. In 2012, he launched a beer-brewing company, Max Dog Brewing, for legally importing nitrogen canisters into Australia.

He has also published an online guide on how to kill yourself, The Peaceful Pill eHandbook, which is updated regularly on methods involving barbiturates, over the counter drugs, gases, and poisons. (It is banned in Australia.) He travels around the world giving DIY workshops on how to top yourself. His message? Anywhere, anytime, anyone rational should be allowed to commit suicide.

“You must be able to control the time at which you die,” he told Guardian Australia in 2015. “That should be an essential human right. In other words, you don’t have to be sick to qualify for voluntary euthanasia. Everybody qualifies. I see too many people now who want to die for social reasons, not medical reasons. They may not be my reasons. They may not be yours. But they are certainly the individual’s.”

How many people has Philip Nitschke killed?

Technically, none. In 1996, when voluntary euthanasia was legal in Australia’s Northern Territory, he assisted four people to die by suicide. Since then, he has confined himself giving advice and encouragement. After the Medical Board of Australia restricted his ability to practice medicine in 2015, Nitschke upped sticks and moved to the Netherlands with his partner, Fiona Stewart. From there he runs Exit International, a network of rational suicide acolytes. He has also established a group in Switzerland – where assisted suicide is legal --called “The Last Resort”, to promote Sarco.

“The day you die is one of the most important days of your life.” Nitschke explained to a Dutch newspaper. “When it becomes inevitable, why don’t we embrace it? With this machine you can die anywhere you want: with a view of the mountains or of the waves of the ocean. And apart from this device, you don’t need much: no doctor putting a needle into your veins, no illegal drugs that are difficult to obtain. This demedicalizes death.”

How many people has Nitschke killed is the wrong question. He is careful enough to abide by the letter of the law in every jurisdiction in which he is active. In his latest triumph, the first Sarco death, he wasn’t even present. The woman’s final moments in a Swiss forest were filmed and he observed them from over the border in Germany in a live-streamed snuff video.

“We saw jerky, small twitches of the muscles in her arms, but she was probably already unconscious by then. It looked exactly how we expected it to look,” he commented.

Nitschke never kills anyone – he encourages people to kill themselves. How many of these have there been? No one knows. Scores? Hundreds? Nobody seems too interested in counting them.

Swiss police arrested four people after the American woman’s death, and may charge them with conspiracy to incite suicide. But my guess is that no one will be fined or jailed, least of all the man most responsible for inciting her.

What is he guilty of?

Legally, nothing. He’s a cunning bastard. But morally, apart from these deaths, he is guilty of an offence for which we don’t lock people up nowadays – blasphemy. But it’s not the old-fashioned kind of blasphemy, which was insulting God. It’s blasphemy against life itself. It’s the worship of nihilism. In Nitschke’s worldview, life has no special value. It’s not worth fighting for; it’s not worth treasuring; it’s not worth defending.

No society which treats a man like Nitschke as an endearing eccentric – as the media has done – can survive.

If there is anyone on God’s earth who deserves to be locked up, it is Philip Nitschke.

What do you think of the notion of rational suicide? Is it a human right?

Michael Cook is editor of Mercator.

Image credit: The Last Resort website

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Rob McKilliam commented 2024-10-08 11:36:48 +1100

David, I hope you and mrscracker don’t mind if I try and answer your question.

Yes. God does have a plan for our lives. Who knows why? Maybe just for amusement.

God also gave us ‘free will’. This means it is up to us whether we follow the plan or not.

Unfortunately many of us do not follow the plan. Hence the world is in a mess.
David Page commented 2024-10-05 09:05:37 +1000

Mrs Cracker, do you believe God has a plan for our lives? It sounds so mundane and beneath such an entity? Why is the world such an awful mess?
mrscracker commented 2024-10-03 05:43:04 +1000

You have a blessed evening Mr. Rob. Or night , wherever you are.
:)
Rob McKilliam commented 2024-10-03 05:23:43 +1000

You are quite right. We have free will which suggests we do influence the script. Thank you for correcting me mrscracker.
mrscracker commented 2024-10-03 03:58:35 +1000

God doesn’t will us to despair nor writes that into His plan for our lives but I believe that He forgives us when we make decisions under the influence of chronic pain, lack of sleep, isolation, etc. We don’t have full consent, understanding, or even our full reason at times like that.
Rob McKilliam commented 2024-10-03 03:07:15 +1000

Perhaps the end was always part of the script? We will never know will we.
mrscracker commented 2024-10-03 01:48:19 +1000

I wasn’t thinking as much about the right or wrong of it but about our attempting to be scriptwriters of a final act for plays we’re not the authors of. We don’t know all the Author’s intentions, nor the opportunities we can miss by that self editing.
Rob McKilliam commented 2024-10-02 10:05:07 +1000

Thank you for sharing this mrscracker. It is a heartwarming story. I agree with you that life is sacred and like you would discourage anyone from ending it.
However I don’t think it is right for us to force our views onto others. Every situation is different and every person is different and I believe only God is the judge of right and wrong.
In the end I was quite happy with my friend’s decision. So were the two priests who administered the final sacraments and who were with her to the end.
The disease was tragic, the end was not.
mrscracker commented 2024-10-02 05:16:12 +1000

Well Mr. Rob, I can only relate from personal experience but the person I cared for shared that their first impulse upon their diagnosis was to take their own life rather than suffer a terminal illness.
Thankfully that wasn’t possible. Driving off a cliff or bridge isn’t easily accomplished from a hospital bed.
By not doing that they were given time to reconcile with every single one of their estranged family members, say goodbye to old friends, receive the Sacraments, & generally put together many of the broken pieces in their life.
Beyond the sin of suicide, leaving your loved ones in that way is absolutely tragic. I have a friend who lost both her father & brother to suicide & she never recovered from it. I think she’s been able now to forgive them, but her own mental wellbeing’s been damaged.
Our lives are a precious gift that we should not destroy.
God bless!
Rob McKilliam commented 2024-10-02 00:22:31 +1000

I agree with both of you Sue and mrscracker. I think we may just be disagreeing over the word ‘tragic’.
mrscracker commented 2024-10-02 00:03:18 +1000

Thank you for your comments, Mr. Rob. I cared for someone terminally ill also & I believe they received the best care possible but it’s not the case for everyone. So many of us suffer alone & we can despair. Especially if we see no meaning to suffering or have lost hope in our faith or the promise of eternal life.
Every human life is sacred & even though we want to be in control of every aspect of our lives, that control is really an illusion. And it can become a dangerous one.
Sue McKeown commented 2024-10-01 23:02:22 +1000

All human beings have inherent worth and dignity whether a severely disabled infant or a 90+ year-old with a form of dementia.
Rob McKilliam commented 2024-10-01 22:36:59 +1000

Sorry Marty. I don’t understand your point.
Marty Hayden commented 2024-10-01 21:22:39 +1000

Rob, your arguments are logically fallacious. In other words, you cannot argue that there is not an innate dignity associated with human existence from a handful of exceptions, however close they may be to you personally. Yes, those are heart breakers, but not universally applicable.
Rob McKilliam commented 2024-10-01 10:24:30 +1000

Mrs Cracker: Someone close to me died with Motor Neurone Disease. As an ex OT she knew professionally exactly what was happening to her and what would likely happen next. She was an inspiration to all with her good humour and stoic acceptance over a number of years. She enjoyed mentoring the many health professionals who came to assist.

There was absolutely nothing more that could have been done to improve her care. In reality, (and arguably tragically) what was artificially being done helped to unnecessarily prolong and increase her suffering. Watching her and helping her was a challenge for family, friends and professional carers. In the end her death was a blessed relief for everyone.

So, as I said to Sue, Voluntary Assisted Dying (ie: suicide) is not necessarily ‘always tragic’. It may not be right, but that is a different thing.
mrscracker commented 2024-09-30 18:13:42 +1000

It seems more important to me to ask what is missing in the care of those who choose to take their own lives? And what can be done to improve their care?
Rob McKilliam commented 2024-09-30 14:36:19 +1000

Sue: I would agree with you in the cases you describe.
Sue McKeown commented 2024-09-30 13:51:28 +1000

Rob McKilliam,
It would have been tragic had my late father or late mother-in-law (both with Alzheimer’s disease) or my late husband (with frontotemporal degeneration) had chosen to commit suicide when they were still able to choose it. It would have robbed their families of years together. Even after my husband was a private-pay long-term care resident, we still had fun together. I’d take him outside for walks, to a sports bar to watch football, to church (and then lunch afterwards). My mother-in-law lived long enough to see all but her youngest grandchild finish college and launch their careers.
Rob McKilliam commented 2024-09-30 11:19:30 +1000

Sue: Suicide is not ‘always tragic’. It can be a relief for those suffering a debilitating incurable illness.
Sue McKeown commented 2024-09-29 23:20:52 +1000

Anon Emouse,
Suicide isn’t illegal, but it’s certainly immoral and always tragic. It’s one thing if someone kills herself or himself with a gun, hanging, an overdose of drugs, or drugs + alcohol. The issue is when someone else facilitates a suicide, which is what Nitzche advocates. This should be a crime and require a long prison term.
Anon Emouse commented 2024-09-29 16:32:52 +1000

Is it Mercatornet’s position that, no matter how much one is suffering (physically, let’s say) they should not have the right to end their suffering by taking their own life? That’s bold.
Emberson Fedders commented 2024-09-28 12:44:58 +1000

Pretty simple one this. If you don’t want to end your life voluntarily, don’t. If you would like the option, particularly if you’ve suffered debilitating illness for an extended period, you have that option.

We only get a problem when one group tries to impose their beliefs on another group.
Judi Taylor commented 2024-09-28 07:40:32 +1000

My 26 year old ,depressed son died by suicide as a direct result of Philip Nitchke and his ghoulish organisation, Exit International.
Nitschke gave my son personal medical advice on the method and coached him to the end.
At the time no-one was interested. Not the police, not the politicians, not the Federal police or Interpol.
And they still aren’t. Australia really dropped the ball on this man and have let him loose on the world.
Philip Nitschke is a. Suicide predator and a profiteer- who likes to watch.
Sue McKeown commented 2024-09-28 01:31:15 +1000

No, by definition all suicides are irrational.
mrscracker commented 2024-09-28 00:29:11 +1000

“You must be able to control the time at which you die,” he told Guardian Australia in 2015. “That should be an essential human right. "
********
It’s our modern delusion about always being in control.
Michael Cook published this page in The Latest 2024-09-27 22:04:28 +1000

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