The man who invented the ‘Tesla of Euthanasia’ is ‘very keen’ to bring it here if a new law passes to allow assisted dying.
MPs will debate the bill on Friday, and it goes ahead then Dr Philip Nitschke will be thinking about how to import his Sarco death pods.
If you haven’t heard about them, they are capsules big enough for one person to lie down in, which can be flooded with fatal levels of nitrogen gas with the press of a button.
They have a transparent window to allow users to gaze out at a view they love in their final moments.
But the pods are controversial even aside from the obvious reason, as the only person ever to die in one so far was found with what appeared to be strangulation marks in September, with an employee arrested over it in Switzerland.
It has not put the company off eyeing expansion, however: Dr Nitschke told The Telegraph that a lot of Brits are following his project ‘very closely’ and he would be ‘very keen’ to bring his pods to Britain.
He suggested that the Lake District could be a good place to set one up.
‘It seems to me that it will just provide an additional option for those who don’t want the needle and who don’t want the drink… who do like what I describe as the stylish and elegant means that is provided by this device in some idyllic location.
‘For people who have got that choice of picking the day and the time… it is the most important day of your life, presumably, the day you die.’
The ‘Sarco’ cost one million dollars (£789,000) to develop and build, Mr Nitschke has said.
Users are supposed to fall unconscious and die within a few minutes of gas being injected into its sealed chamber.
The 64-year-old woman who died in September was not identified but Mr Nitschke, a trained medical doctor, said she had ‘compromised immune function’ that made her ‘subject to chronic infection’.
He said any claim she had been strangled was ‘absurd because we’ve got film that the capsule wasn’t opened’.
Peter Sticher, the prosecutor for the northern Schaffhausen region who is leading the legal case, declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no ‘external assistance’, and those who help the person die do not do so for ‘any self-serving motive’, according to a government website.
On November 29, MPs in the UK will vote for the first time in nine years over whether or not to legalise assisted dying.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has allowed a free vote on the issue, and his cabinet is split. Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood have spoken out against legalisation, while Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy have said they will vote for it.
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected]. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.
MORE: 15 years ago an unremarkable cave became home to a ‘horrifying’ urban legend
MORE: Mum-of-two ‘stabbed to death on her children’s toys’ by man she had ‘rebuffed’
MORE: ‘Unique’ cemetery says grieving relatives must pay for VIP passes to visit graves