![\"Sarco](\"https:\/\/exitinternational.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Huff-Post-620x428.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSome 20 years ago,\u00a0I became the first physician in the world to administer a legal, lethal, voluntary injection to four of my terminally ill patients (under Australia\u2019s short-lived Rights of the Terminally Ill Act). At the time, I approached death with the confidence, and even arrogance, of someone in the middle of his life. I was about to turn 50. At a psychological level, death was still something that happened to other people.<\/p>\n
As my work in this field has matured, my vision has shifted from supporting the idea of a dignified death for the terminally ill (the medical model) to supporting the concept of a good death for\u00a0any\u00a0rational adult who has \u201clife experience\u201d (the human rights model).\u00a0At Exit International,\u00a0the nonprofit organization I founded after the aforementioned overturning of the world\u2019s first voluntary euthanasia law, we interpret that to mean anyone over 50 years of age.<\/p>\n
I have found myself at the pointy end of the right-to-die debate.<\/p>\n
Getting information about how to \u201cdie with dignity,\u201d should the need arise, is like an insurance policy \u2015 the \u201cjust in case\u201d safety net that could be there if their health and quality of life turned bad someday.<\/p>\n
If we are talking about a \u201cgood death,\u201d referred to by the Greeks as \u201ceuthanasia,\u201d then why isn\u2019t this the goal for all of us? Why do you have to be terminally ill (i.e., almost dead) to die with dignity?<\/p>\n
This unequal distribution of the privilege of dying with dignity makes no sense, especially given the capacity of modern medicine to keep many of us alive well beyond what we would wish. This presents another conundrum: In the liberal democratic West, we are living longer but our lives are less healthy. I see this reality every day.<\/p>\n
It may surprise readers to know that the vast majority of the membership of Exit International are the \u201cwell elderly.\u201d These older people are not sick\u00a0\u2015 well, not now, at least.<\/p>\n
However, they know things will not always be this way. Getting information about how to \u201cdie with dignity,\u201d should the need arise, is like an insurance policy \u2015 the \u201cjust in case\u201d safety net that could be there if their health and quality of life turned bad someday.<\/p>\n
I hear some people express surprise others plan ahead like this. Is this morbid? Is it depressing to anticipate one\u2019s death?<\/p>\n
At Exit International, we don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
Time and again, we see the comfort and reassurance that is gained from knowing one has an \u201cexit plan,\u201d so to speak, within reach, should the need ever arise. Being in control gives confidence; it restores one\u2019s sense of self.<\/p>\n
And, yes, it generates dignity in living, knowing one will have dignity in dying.<\/p>\n
But what if we had more than mere dignity to look forward to? What if we dared to imagine that our last day on this planet might also be one of our most exciting? Would \u201cdignity\u201d still be our endgame, or would that just be par for the course?<\/p>\n
Thinking in this context about what I wanted my own last day to be like, I began to envision a machine, device, invention, thing\u00a0 \u2015 I\u2019m searching for terminology here that is not yet in our vocabulary \u2015 that might elevate the spirit when the end is nigh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sarco,\u201d as the capsule that I have co-designed with Dutch engineer Alex Bannink has been named, is my first tangible expression of enquiry for death to be much more than \u201cjust dignified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another rendering of The Sarco.<\/p>\n
The Sarco is a 3D-printable machine that provides death by hypoxia, an environment with low levels of oxygen. It can be transported wherever one chooses. Facing the awe of the Rockies?\u00a0Overlooking the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean? Where you die is certainly an important factor.<\/p>\n
Nice scenery at the end is hardly a new thought. The film \u201cSoylent Green\u201d showed the benefit of the peace that pretty pictures and a soothing soundtrack can bring when drifting away from this world. The thought that ground-breaking film left on the shelf, though, was the possibility of feeling not just dignity at the end, but of feeling\u00a0euphoric. And why not?<\/p>\n
Hypoxia can offer just that. Ask someone who has lived through a rapid plane depressurization \u2015 that drunk disorientation can leave you a little unsure of just why you should strap on that dangling oxygen mask. In my Air Force days I was asked to write a letter to a friend while they lowered the oxygen level in my training chamber. I wrote rubbish, but it seemed like happy euphoric rubbish when I was re-reading it at ground oxygen level.<\/p>\n
As I say in my workshops, \u201cYou\u2019re only going to die once, so why not have the best?\u201d In that case, I\u2019m usually referring to Nembutal, a barbiturate used as a euthanasia drug. While the modus operandi of Nembutal might be peaceful, reliable and, yes, dignified, it fails miserably at providing a euphoric death.
\nAnd this is just what the Sarco is seeking to address.<\/p>\n
A Sarco death is painless. There\u2019s no suffocation, choking sensation or \u201cair hunger\u201d as the user breathes easily in a low-oxygen environment. The sensation is one of well-being and intoxication.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how it works: Potential users fill out an online test to gauge their mental fitness. If they pass, they receive an access code to a Sarco device that works for 24 hours. After the code is entered and an additional confirmation given, liquid nitrogen in the generator is released, rapidly bringing down the oxygen level in the capsule. Within a minute,\u00a0the user loses consciousness; death comes a short time later.<\/p>\n
A Sarco death is painless. There\u2019s no suffocation, choking sensation or \u201cair hunger\u201d as the user breathes easily in a low-oxygen environment. The sensation is one of well-being and intoxication.<\/p>\n
In a creative twist on my previous \u201chave the best death you can\u201d proposition, the Sarco adds the extra layer of \u201cfeel your best.\u201d It is perhaps that in experiencing life as euphoria that life and death conflate into one.<\/p>\n
This sentiment has been similarly expressed in the\u00a0graphic short film \u201cH Positive\u201d\u00a0(below). The leading man, Mark, says, \u201cWhen I die I don\u2019t want barbiturates in my blood, I want adrenaline!\u201d<\/p>\n
He has a terminal diagnosis, so he has a real-life version of\u00a0Julijonas Urbonas\u2019 \u201ceuthanasia roller coaster\u201d\u00a0built. The G-forces generated by this final ride guarantee cerebral euphoria and anoxia \u2015 and death.<\/p>\n
The palatability and acceptability of Mark\u2019s death will differ from viewer to viewer, but the message stays the same:\u00a0Someone\u2019s last day on Earth\u00a0is\u00a0special. Is there any reason why their feeling shouldn\u2019t be measured in the positive, rather than in degrees of miserable-ness, pain and mental anguish?<\/p>\n
The Sarco will not be for everyone, that\u2019s clear. By next year, though, the open-source plans will be freely available on internet.\u00a0I would like to think that it will find broad appeal and be able to help reframe conversations about, and people\u2019s experiences, with death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talk about \u201cdying with dignity\u201d has grown to a calamitous pitch in recent years. \u201cRight to die\u201d groups vie for supremacy, trying to show who can make the dying experience the least degrading. Who can replace the utter macabre-ness of the necessity of death with something more palatable. In this reclamation of death \u2015 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n