A coffin-shaped capsule that allows occupants to kill themselves has passed legal review in Switzerland, according to its creators.

The creator is Philip Nitschke of Exit International which believes that anyone who makes a ‘rational’ choice to die, ought to be able to avail of assisted suicide, whether they are ill or not.

The Sarco machine can be operated from the inside –conceivably just by blinking if the person suffers from locked-in syndrome – and works by reducing the oxygen level in the pod to below a critical level.

Some 1,300 people died by assisted suicide in Switzerland in 2020 using the services of the country’s two largest assisted suicide organisations.