Assisted suicide machine approved for use in Switzerland

The chamber is made by 3D printing, and has been called "Sarco." It allows a patient to enter the chamber, wait until he or she is comfortable, and commit suicide painlessly at the touch of a button.

According to Futurism, the machine works by slowly filling the chamber with nitrogen gas, causing the patient to die within 30 seconds or so. The company responsible for the machine, Exit International, claims that the death not only occurs quickly, it happens without any physical or psychological trauma whatsoever.

"There is no panic, no choking feeling," commented the founder of Exit International, Dr. Philip Nitschke.

The chamber is portable, and, as such, can be transported to a wide variety of locations, allowing patients to be able to die wherever they so choose.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising detail of this machine is that the presence of a medical professional will no longer be required for an assisted suicide. The "assist" comes 100 percent from the machine itself.

According to Swiss law, however, you will need to have your mental capacity to make such a decision certified by a medical doctor. Up until now, once approved by a doctor, you would get a prescription for sodium pentobarbital.

Nitschke wants to take things a step further, mentioning that they are planning to have an AI quiz patients, and those who pass the criteria will obtain access to Sarco.

"We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves," he commented.

Assisted suicide is still not legal in most of the world at the time of this writing. Switzerland, and some US states like the state of California, are among the few exceptions.