SARCO

AHA! Time for suicide commentary. Again.
With the news that several people have been taken into custody in Switzerland following the first use of an assisted suicide device, once again we find the do-gooders lining up against the practical folks.
            I have long believed that should any one of us decide we simply don’t want to be here any longer, we ought to be able to do something about that. Surely that’s a foundation of human rights. I mean, isn’t that our entitlement as human beings with at least some control over our lives?
            I’ve written before, asking why it is that Kurt Cobain, of the grunge music band Nirvana, was forced to spray his guts and blood all over the walls and floor of his home for his wife and child to discover after his shotgun did it’s awful duty. And why did poor jazz singer Susannah McCorkle, staggered by personal and professional setbacks, jump out of her 16th-floor Upper West Side apartment, splattering her remains on the sidewalk below for passers-by to glory in. And then there’s Robin Williams, hanging himself from a rafter in the basement of his home with a belt around his neck, for his poor wife to discover.
            Aren’t we humane enough to provide people like them – and the many others who seek redress away from this world – with an out that is quiet, dignified, not painful. Apparently not. We insist that they leave with terrible discomfort.
            And isn’t that just what the people in Switzerland were trying to do with the Sarco capsule? It features a sealed chamber in which a person sits in a reclined seat and pushes a button to release nitrogen gas that takes the place of oxygen in less than a minute; the individual loses consciousness and falls to sleep after a few breaths; they die in less than five minutes. Result: a peaceful, fast and dignified death.
            Now, that sure sounds to me like a reasonable out. But no, we have the usual band of do-gooders who purport to know more about you than you know about yourself. They have all the answers for questions that don’t need asking. And they want you to know that they are there to ensure your final wishes are ignored. That’s wonderful, because with their actions, you can now spray your guts across the room with a shotgun… or you can leap out of your window and fall to your splattered death while the hoi polloi looks on… or you can wrap a belt around your neck, fasten it to a beam in your home and hang yourself for your spouse to find later.
            Yup, you do-gooders – we owe you such a big vote of thanks for designing such a swell way to exit. And don’t worry, because this same group will arrange the laws to ensure anyone suggesting the Sarco capsule is accessory to suicide and “suspected incitement”.
            Yeah, right…

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