A futuristic suicide pod for ‘assisted dying’ may be used for the first time as early as this month, Swiss media reports.

Developed by Philip Nitschke, one of the founders of Exit International, whose Irish branch is led by Tom Curran, the partner of the late ‘right-to-die’ campaigner Marie Fleming, the ‘Sarco’ (short for sarcophagus), is a coffin-shaped machine that releases deadly nitrogen once activated from inside.

Its creator claims a rapid decrease in oxygen level while maintaining a low CO2 level could allow users to die, “a peaceful, even euphoric death”.

Yet, the press section of the company’s website links to a New York Times story that the US state of Alabama used nitrogen gas to execute a man on death row.

Moreover, while State lawyers had previously claimed in court filings that an execution by nitrogen would ensure “unconsciousness in seconds”, the condemned prisoner, Kenneth Smith, 58, “shook and writhed” for at least two minutes before slipping into slower, heavier breathing and eventually dying.

Swiss news outlet NZZ reports that on June 10, Nitschke wrote in an online forum that Sarco’s deployment in Switzerland was expected ‘in the next few weeks.’