The Sarco, a machine that will help you die
Ending your life voluntarily remains one of the most controversial issues that currently exist. Should there be a right to take your own life? Does life itself have an intrinsic value? There are countries like Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland or Japan that contemplate active euthanasia in their legislation as a legal way; and great promoters of it as Dr. Philip Nitschke, one of the greatest experts in the field and nicknamed “Doctor Death”. In TED you can watch a talk with his ideas and then a quote that summarizes his vision (is from an interview on VICE)
The most common argument is that there is no such thing as rational suicide, and that a death wish is, per definition, the result of a psychiatric illness. I reject that idea. Someone’s death wish isn’t something that needs to be treated, per se. Another objection is that life is a gift, one you should be thankful for. My counter argument for that is: If life is indeed a gift, you are also allowed to give it away. Otherwise, isn’t it a burden instead of a gift?
Nitschke, in addition to talks, books, articles and studies related to euthanasia, launched in 1997 The Deliverance Machine, a system based on a laptop that triggered a lethal dose of barbiturates once the patient had confirmed his desire to end his life. It was a rudimentary but effective system, which surely laid the foundations of his latest invention: The Sarco. This sarcophagus facilitates a painless and peaceful death to anyone who wants it, applying a dose of nitrogen that leaves the person unconscious in the first minute and ends his life at five.
The Sarco is designed so that you can only activate it from within and thus not be able to use it as a machine to kill someone; and a test will be required to determine if the buyer is mentally healthy or not, a diagnosis that will eventually be made by an Artificial Intelligence according to Nitschke.
What do you think? Should there be a right to die? If we think about the moment in which we reach immortality (or at least stop our aging) the inventions and systems to be able to die will be necessary …
#365daysof #futurism #innovation #transhumanism #death #day85
