Nonprofit Plans to Display 3D-Printed Assisted Suicide Pod in Canada Next Year

A controversial nonprofit that has built a 3D-printed assisted suicide pod says it has legal authority to use the device in Switzerland and will begin doing so in 2022, and that it plans to show versions of the device in Canada and Australia next year.

Exit International is a nonprofit founded by physician Philip Nitschke to make voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide more accessible, less medicalized, and as painless as possible. Nitschke is a leader of the "right to die" movement and has created several devices over the years that facilitate death. As Motherboard wrote in 2018, Nitschke facilitated the first legal euthanization in history using a laptop that administered a lethal dose of barbiturates. For the last several years, Nitschke and Exit International have been developing and promoting the “Sarco,” a 3D-printed death pod that we called a “coffin connected to a supply of liquid nitrogen.”

Nitschke told Motherboard in an email that the first Sarco expected to be used on actual humans “is currently being printed” in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and he said he believes they have legal authority to use it in Switzerland, where euthanasia is legal. 

“This will take some time—most of December, after which we will bring the completed Sarco back to our laboratory for instrument testing before taking it to Switzerland for actual use,” he said. Nitschke said that Exit International commissioned a legal review in Switzerland and that it found no issues and was “very reassuring.” 

“We are familiar with the Swiss legislation and did not think there would be any issues re replacing the use of oral or IV pentobarbital with the use of nitrogen, but wanted to be certain we were not overlooking anything,” Nitschke said. He added that additional machines are going to be made next year and will be displayed at Exit International’s 2022 NuTech conference in Toronto, which still has no set date or location.

“Plans are being put in place to print Sarco in Canada in time for a planned NuTech conference on assisted dying in Toronto, and in Australia in 2022,” Nitschke said.

If you are struggling with a mental health issues in the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or contact the Suicide Prevention Resource Center . In Canada, visit suicideprevention.ca for more information on how to get help.