3D-Printed Suicide Booths

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Tue Dec 7 00:53:28 PST 2021


Switzerland Legalizes 3D-Printed Suicide Booths
By:Blueapples

Perhaps the only thing mankind has contemplated more than life itself
is death. For as much as the social constructs of religion, law, and
governance have encapsulated our attitudes about death, the
superiority of natural law is impossible to curtail. Underlying
philosophical positions skew a nation, people, or culture's outlook on
the matter to the point that permeates into governance. Few better
facets of dying convey this than suicide. In some nations suicide is
viewed as an acceptable, if not honorable, way to die. Yet in most of
the western world it is perceived as the gravest of sins.

Balancing those interests through the rule of law is a delicate task
which juxtaposes the state's interest in preserving life along with
its respect for the autonomy of its citizens. The complexity of this
moral argument is made particularly evident when examining the
legality of assisted suicide. As governments of developed nations
across the world have begun to confront this macabre issue,
Switzerland's latest action on the matter illustrates the startling
reality of the matter. The country's medical review board has
authorized the use of a 3D-printed suicide pod as a method of legal
assisted suicide.

The Sarco Suicide Pod is a portable assisted suicide device made
possible by 3D-printing. The device was invented by Philip Nitschke.
With a surname bearing similarity to Friedrich Nietzsche, it should be
no surprise that Nitschke has a strong philosophical position on the
issue of assisted suicide. From the humanist position on dying with
dignity to espousing the importance of personal autonomy in matters of
life and death, he has advocated for the safe practice of assisted
suicide through his public interest group Exit International. Nitschke
is credited with performing the first doctor in the world to perform a
legal lethal injection in 1996 following the passage of the Rights of
the Terminally Ill Act by the government of Australia's Northern
Territory in 1995. Once the law was repealed in 1997, Nitschke turned
to advocacy by starting his foundation.

Since the repeal of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act in Australia,
other nations have legalized assisted suicide. In the United States,
it's legal in 8 states (Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, Colorado, New
Mexico, Washington, Oregon, and California) as well as Washington DC.
In Montana, it is also legal for terminally ill patients to request
lethal medication from a physician. In Switzerland, the legality of
assisted suicide is made possible by Article 115 of the Swiss Penal
Code which allows the act in instances where the motive of doing so is
altruistic. This makes Swiss law on the matter much more ambiguous
compared to other European nations where it is legal, namely Belgium,
Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Unlike those countries, the
statutory construction of Swiss law makes legal assisted suicide
possible even without a physician.

Switzerland's unique legal climate presents Nitschke with a unique
opportunity given that he himself is not a physician. The inventor has
expressly conveyed the importance of removing psychiatric review and
other medical oversight in instances of individuals seeking assisted
suicide. All Nitschke requires is that those who apply to use the
suicide pod fill out a questionnaire which determines they are capable
of consenting. From there, the portable device can be transported to a
location of their choosing. Once immersed in the suicide pod, the
person activates an AI process which gradually reduces the oxygen by
flooding the interior with nitrogen. Once the process begins, all the
person using the device has to do is lay down and die.

As of its approval by the Swiss Medical Review Board, no Sarco Suicide
Pod has gone into operation yet. The device is presently in
development with just 3 prototypes to have been constructed thus far.
No cost estimates for the device have even been calculated. Needless
to say, there aren't any user reviews on the device available either.

Though Switzerland's approval of this machine comes at a time where
polling reflects a positive outlook on assisted suicide, that also
intersects with a period of increased mental illness onset by
restrictive government policies made under the pretense of protecting
public health in the midst of a pandemic. This duality reflects that
the changing attitude on assisted suicide by the government lacks the
altruistic intent referred to under the Swiss penal code. Economic
shuttering, rigid policies restricting the free association of
individuals in public, and the mental strain of terror imposed by a
medical technocracy demonstrate a callous disregard for human life and
individual autonomy. While the Swiss have viewed legal suicide as a
right under personal freedom, they have also recently upheld the use
of vaccine passports which is a stark contradiction of law making done
in the interest of protecting individual freedom, especially in
consideration of medical care.

Formative French sociologist Émile Durkheim is regarded as
contributing one of the most compelling philosophical examinations of
suicide through his aptly titled monograph Le Suicide. Durkheim's work
was published in 1897 at a time where shifting views on suicide were
happening within a much more conservative society. Influenced by his
era, Durkheim's work takes a much more objective insight into suicide
by cataloging it among four classifications: egostic, altruistic,
anomic, and fatalistic. He also notes the varying suicide rates across
different cultures and demographics. Le Suicide was innately expectant
of criticism upon its release given the gravity of its subject matter.
One of the foremost criticisms of his work was that Durkheim's view on
individual autonomy was formed by the amalgamation of aggregate
statistics from external factors. As such, given that individuals are
choosing to commit suicide because of those external forces, there is
reason to question how freely they are making the choice given the
influence of the duress that they are under. This criticism provides a
compelling argument seemingly absent from advocacy promoting assisted
suicide in the most liberal conditions. It begs the question about
whether or not a state that doesn't care whether you live or die is
earnestly being altruistic in reshaping its laws on assisted suicide.


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