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Switzerland Suicide Pod: The name might sound like a character from a superhero movie, but ‘Dr Death’ is what the world has chosen to call Philip Nitschke, the inventor of The Sarco, a suicide pod. It’s basically a ‘3D-printed portable pod’ that has been made to assist people, terminally ill patients to be more precise, in euthanasia. As per the Independent, people will be able to use the ‘death pod’ without any medical supervision, making the entire invention ‘controversial’, as per many. And Switzerland, among all nations, has become the first country that is set to use the portable suicide pod.

The 76-year-old humanist, former physician and author, Nitschke, reportedly introduced the controversial suicide pod back in 2019, which triggered a major division among people. The pod, on the other hand, will assist in assisted dying by using nitrogen, which will start replacing the pod’s oxygen with just a push of a button. As per reports, the pod will take around 10 minutes to do the ‘deed’.

Coming back to Switzerland becoming the first to use the pod, the organisation that will assist in euthanasia, The Last Resort, opened up about the machine being used soon. For further context, The Last Resort assists people with ‘serious physical illness’. As per the organisation, at a press conference on July 16, the time, date and location for the first use have not been determined yet. As per Florian Willet, a person associated with The Last Resort, the identity of the first user will not be disclosed until assisted suicide takes place. The decision reportedly came with the aim of not making the user’s ‘desire’ of dying in peace into a ‘media circus’.

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“We really don't want a person's desire for a peaceful passing Switzerland to turn into a media circus,” a lawyer on The Last Resort's advisory board, Fiona Stewart, was quoted as saying to AFP. Stewart further updated that the near-future use of the pod will take place before 2024 ends. Coming to the cost at which patients will be able to choose to end their lives in ‘peace’, as per the lawyer, is USD 20 (Rs 1,673). Although assisted suicide is something that Switzerland permitted in the 1940s, dying using a portable pod will only take place now, after decades in 2024.

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