3D-printable suicide machine on show

The world’s first 3D-printable suicide machine will be on show in Australia from next week.

The Sarco assisted suicide machine.

The world’s first 3D-printable suicide machine will be on show in Australia from next week, with Exit International director Philip Nitschke hoping it will ­appeal to Victorian patients seeking an “elegant and stylish death” under new euthanasia laws.

The machine, called Sarco, comprises a sleek capsule aboard a reusable platform. Clients climb inside, punch out a code, and it fills with nitrogen. A computer program allows the patient to “rise up” and get a “last look at the world”.

The capsule can then be buried with the client inside.

Dr Nitschke said the passage of Victorian euthanasia legislation, which will allow some terminally ill patients to choose the time of their death, wasn’t strictly necessary “because suicide is not a crime, but the Victorian law will focus attention onto the issue, and especially the arduous prerequisites”.

Victorian patients will essentially need permission from their doctors to use the new euthanasia laws. They also have to prove they probably have less than six months to live. “I’m sure many will see Sarco as a desirable alternative,” Dr Nitschke said.

He plans to hold “virtual ­reality demonstrations” that will allow people to hop in the ­machine, before “entering the access code, lying back and pressing the ‘die’ button”. “The (virtual) death is then seen as a movement skyward.”

The first demonstration will be in Adelaide on October 29, followed by Perth, Canberra and Sydney.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14