Inventor of suicide pod now building ‘kill switch’ for dementia patients

Dr. Philip Nitschke, a well-known promoter of ‘assisted dying,’ has announced that he is now building a ‘kill switch’ implant that could kill dementia patients in the future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Nitschke boasts that the device will solve the “dementia dilemma” — by killing patients.

• The idea is that the suicide device implant would trigger a release of lethal substances if a dementia patient forgets to turn off the alarm.

• Anti-euthanasia advocates warn that this is yet another slide down the “slippery slope” that occurs with legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia.

THE DETAILS:

Infamously known as the creator of the Sarco suicide pod machine, Nitschke has now set his sights on creating an implant that would be sewn into a person’s body — most likely one of their legs — based on that person’s advance directive. The device would contain a timer that would beep and/or vibrate every day.

If the person forgets to turn off this timer, presumably due to advanced-stage dementia, the device would trigger a switch that would release lethal chemicals into the body, killing the patient.

Nitschke says the device would voluntarily be implanted before a patient has reached a stage at which he or she has a diminished mental capacity.

He told The Daily Mail that this device would solve the “dementia dilemma,” in which people with dementia are typically precluded from ‘assisted deaths’ because they don’t have the mental wherewithal to consent to being killed. He explained that he isn’t satisfied with the advanced directives allowed in other pro-euthanasia nations, like the Netherlands.

“It doesn’t work well at all. It’s not satisfactory and I have talked about it with a lot of Dutch doctors who have tried to use this system and are not happy with it,” he said. “Trying to kill people who don’t know what day it is just because they’ve got a piece of paper they signed ten years ago doesn’t make it any easier. Instead of outsourcing your death to another person — asking someone else to do it — you can do it yourself with some sophisticated technology.”

Nitschke did admit that there are “very real problems” that still need to be worked out surrounding the device’s use, but he expects it will “work well enough and be reliable enough for people to see it as the answer to a very, very difficult problem.”

COMMENTARY:

Anti-euthanasia advocates have expressed great alarm at such a dangerous development in the world of legalized death.

‘This is yet another chilling development from Dr. Death who brought us the personalized gas chamber,” said Alistair Thompson, spokesperson for the group Care Not Killing. “Not content with advocating for killing vulnerable terminally ill adults, he has turned his attention to those with neurodegenerative conditions. But we should not be surprised, because when a society decides that some lives are worthless and should be ended, this is the slippery slope you quickly go down.”

Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right to Life UK, noted that the development of such a device is especially troubling as UK lawmakers currently consider legislation to legalize assisted suicide.

“Nitschke’s dangerous inventions should serve as a wake-up call to politicians considering the reckless assisted suicide Bills in Westminster and Holyrood,” she said. “Rather than promoting assisted suicide, the UK must reject these extreme proposals and instead prioritise properly funded, high-quality palliative care for those at the end of their life.”