Opinion

Everyone’s Upset About The Latest Suicide Machine Because It’s Too Cool

Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.

Illustration of the Sarco by Exit International

Yes, I’m depressed. But that’s not why I frequently contemplate the pros and cons of suicide. My concern is more about being a burden to others, or conversely, having no one upon whom to be a burden.

Not everyone has something to look forward to.

As controversial as this may be, not everyone has a purpose in life or even particularly wants one. Some are just waiting for it to be over and hope that the end won’t be a painful, humiliating coda to a life they didn’t ask for.

That doesn’t mean they’re “mentally ill” or that they don’t appreciate the “sanctity of human life”, which in any event is a ridiculous concept invented as humans organized into settled collectives to keep everyone from randomly killing each other over resources like they used to as hunter-gatherers.

If we really believed in the sanctity of human life, there would be no wars. We wouldn’t let 9 million people die of starvation every year.

The arguments against the Sarco, a 3-D printed capsule that allows the user to die peacefully…