{"id":332318,"date":"2025-06-07T13:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T18:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=332318"},"modified":"2025-06-06T01:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T06:22:22","slug":"inventor-suicide-pod-building-kill-switch-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/inventor-suicide-pod-building-kill-switch-dementia\/","title":{"rendered":"Inventor of suicide pod now building &#8216;kill switch&#8217; for dementia patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Dr. Philip Nitschke, a well-known promoter of &#8216;assisted dying,&#8217; has announced that he is now building a &#8216;kill switch&#8217; implant that could kill dementia patients in the future.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Nitschke boasts that the device will solve the &#8220;dementia dilemma&#8221; \u2014 by killing patients.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>Anti-euthanasia advocates warn that this is yet another slide down the &#8220;slippery slope&#8221; that occurs with legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>THE DETAILS:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Infamously known as the creator of the <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/sarco-uk-assisted-suicide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sarco suicide pod machine<\/a>, Nitschke has now set his sights on creating an implant that would be sewn into a person&#8217;s body \u2014 most likely one of their legs \u2014 based on that person&#8217;s advance directive. The device would contain a timer that would beep and\/or vibrate every day.<\/p>\n<p>If the person forgets to turn off this timer, <em>presumably<\/em> due to advanced-stage dementia, the device would trigger a switch that would release lethal chemicals into the body, killing the patient.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>He told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-14716111\/kill-switch-dementia-sufferers-inventor-Sarco-pod-implant-kill-patients.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Daily Mail<\/a> that this device would solve the &#8220;dementia dilemma,&#8221; in which people with dementia are typically precluded from &#8216;assisted deaths&#8217; because they don&#8217;t have the mental wherewithal to consent to being killed. He explained that he isn&#8217;t satisfied with the advanced directives allowed in other pro-euthanasia nations, like the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t work well at all. It&#8217;s not satisfactory and I have talked about it with a lot of <span data-track-module=\"internal-body-link\">Dutch<\/span> doctors who have tried to use this system and are not happy with it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Trying to kill people who don&#8217;t know what day it is just because they&#8217;ve got a piece of paper they signed ten years ago doesn&#8217;t make it any easier. Instead of outsourcing your death to another person \u2014 asking someone else to do it \u2014 you can do it yourself with some sophisticated technology.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nitschke did admit that there are &#8220;very real problems&#8221; that still need to be worked out surrounding the device&#8217;s use, but he expects it will &#8220;work well enough and be reliable enough for people to see it as the answer to a very, very difficult problem.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>COMMENTARY:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Anti-euthanasia advocates have expressed great alarm at such a dangerous development in the world of legalized death.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This is yet another chilling development from Dr. Death who brought us the personalized gas chamber,&#8221; said Alistair Thompson, spokesperson for the group Care Not Killing. &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNitschke\u2019s dangerous inventions should serve as a wake-up call to politicians considering the reckless assisted suicide Bills in Westminster and Holyrood,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/dr-death-proposes-implant-to-kill-dementia-patients-who-miss-daily-prompts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">she said<\/a>. &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/G3Bhv6M\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-332271\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-700x251.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-700x251.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-300x107.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-768x275.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-500x179.jpg 500w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02.jpg 1167w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Philip Nitschke, a well-known promoter of &#8216;assisted dying,&#8217; has announced that he is now building a &#8216;kill switch&#8217; implant that could kill dementia patients in the future. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Nitschke boasts that the device will solve the &#8220;dementia dilemma&#8221; \u2014 by killing patients. The idea is that the suicide device implant would trigger a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":332491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Inventor of suicide pod now building &#039;kill switch&#039; for dementia patients<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If the person forgets to turn off the timer, presumably due to advanced dementia, the device would release lethal chemicals into the body.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/inventor-suicide-pod-building-kill-switch-dementia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inventor of suicide pod now building &#039;kill switch&#039; 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