The news broke last week that an American woman became the first-ever victim of the Sarco pod — a ghastly device that suffocates the user with nitrogen at the push of a button.
The “assisted suicide” occurred in Switzerland, reportedly under the auspices of the Last Resort, a local affiliate of pro-suicide group Exit International, whose founder and head, Philip Nitschke, developed the device.
The American — pseudonymously called Jessica Campbell — leveled a number of ugly charges against members of the Last Resort before her death, accusing them of bilking her out of money and trying to use her death to juice their press profile.
The group has denied these charges and, per the Swiss media, has presented evidence suggesting they’re untrue.
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Which means one of two things happened.
Either the group is guilty of what Campbell claimed, or it oversaw the death of a woman beset with paranoid fantasies — undercutting any claim she was compos mentis enough to assent to being killed via suffocation.
No shock there: The pod’s inventor, Nitchske, is an Australian doctor who was once suspended from practice; he named one of his earlier suicide devices “the Deliverance Machine” — as though he were God himself dispensing mercy from on high.
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Indeed, somehow the terms under which people qualify for euthanasia (a misnomer if ever there was one) are always mysteriously expanding.
Look at Canada’s MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) program: Since it went operative in 2017, its use has increased to the point that in some provinces it accounts for as much as 5% of deaths.
And data suggests that people are increasingly using it because they’re poor .
Or consider Holland and the case of Zoraya ter Beek, a healthy young woman whose suicide the Dutch state gave its blessing to.
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The reason for her desire to die? Mental illness.
One Dutch former “death doctor” has explained in an interview with the Free Press about ter Beek’s case that he resigned from his duties in signing off on these “procedures” after seeing “the Dutch euthanasia practice evolve from death being a last resort to death being a default option.”
That is, it morphed into the state and its servants encouraging, even pushing , people to agree to death.
To be clear: It can be perfectly reasonable for those who are nearing death’s door to go for a “Do not resuscitate” order, or simply to refuse more “life saving” care, such as chemotherapy that might give you another month or two at the cost of making life unbearable.
But euthanasia, especially under government auspices, operates on an inherently slippery slope, especially when the “volunteer” is vulnerable in any of a host of ways.
That is the central problem with the doctrine of “assisted suicide,” and it’s not going away.
No matter how many handwaves about “dignity” and “freedom” the murder enthusiasts make.
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