[Image of Assisted Suicide, Credit to Pixabay]

The recent completion of the technical device test for the SARCO suicide capsule, set to be utilized in Switzerland, highlights the ongoing global issue surrounding assisted suicide and legal considerations.

A suicide capsule that allows users to take their own lives has completed a final technical device test in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and will be utilized in Switzerland.

This device, the SARCO capsule, injects nitrogen to rapidly lower the oxygen levels, causing users to lose consciousness and die.

According to the SARCO website, the oxygen level inside the capsule drops rapidly below zero in about 60 seconds when activated, and this state is maintained for 15 minutes to ensure a peaceful death for users.

The capsule operates through the button inside, and users can escape the capsule by opening the lid if their minds change.

The capsule’s manufacturer is confident in releasing it in Switzerland as assisted suicide is not a violation of the law in Switzerland.

However, even Dignitas, a Swiss non-profit organization that provides physician-assisted suicide services to people suffering from severe physical and mental illness, sees the suicide capsule as unacceptable.

Switzerland is one of the countries where death with dignity is the most advanced globally.

It legally allows assisted suicide when a physician helps individuals who want to make an extreme choice and give up their lives.

Even though other countries have allowed and legalized death with assisted suicide, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and some states in the US, Switzerland has allowed foreigners to die with dignity since 1942.

Foreigners can easily access Switzerland's non-profit organizations, such as Dignitas, that help others to die with dignity.

Patients who choose to die with dignity through assisted suicide will take the medicine with the approval of the doctor after long counsel.

Only those who have thought deeply about death can be accepted to die with dignity.

The desire for death with dignity also extends to celebrities, like Alain Delon, a famous French actor, declared in March 2022 that he wants to die with dignity in Switzerland.

In addition, David Goodall, an Australian scientist, aged 104 in 2018, died in Switzerland listening to Beethoven’s ninth symphony, ‘Ode to Joy,’ which he liked to listen to.

As the recognition that the right to die belongs to human rights increases, the global community’s awareness of legalizing death with dignity is growing.

Recently recognized in Switzerland, about 10 Koreans chose to die with dignity, and 300 Koreans joined the organization that helps achieve their choices.

The controversy over death with dignity has also recently been seen in South Korea.

Lawmaker Kyu-baek Ahn proposed the Assistance and Dignity Death Act, which allows doctors to support ill patients in dying with dignity.

If an ill patient who experiences severe pain wishes, doctors can end their life by providing specific medication.

In Korea, death with dignity by assisted suicide is highly supported, actively reflecting the patient's desire to die with dignity.

According to a survey by ‘Korea Research’ of 1,000 adult Korean men and women for four days, 82 percent supported the lawmaker’s proposal on legislation, while only 18 percent opposed it.

This issue of death with dignity is seen as a question for which a clear solution doesn’t exist.

The debate over whether individuals possess the right to determine the end of their own lives continues to be a subject of passionate discussion and contemplation.