# Suicide pods now legal in Switzerland **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740 "2021-12-08T23:22:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2021, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/162 "2021-12-24T09:09:36Z")
It is also about not assigning blame to that person as if the dysfunction did not exist at all. Sometimes awful things happen and you don’t get to blame anybody in particular. _No one_ gets to have a life free from blameless pain-Sometimes there is no one to aim The Pointing Finger at, so you tuck it back into your fist, and hit a pillow or a wall, and live on. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/163 "2021-12-25T04:49:08Z")
> [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > A small cylinder of nitrogen in a closed car with the windows rolled up should do the job very cheap. I’ve been told that this makes the car into a crime scene and that it may be impounded, at least temporarily. Possibly a nitpick. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/164 "2021-12-26T16:10:59Z")
Use a cheap car. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/165 "2021-12-26T22:31:15Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Use a cheap car. Any small and enclosed space will do. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/166 "2021-12-29T12:23:40Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > It is also about not assigning blame to that person as if the dysfunction did not exist at all. Sometimes awful things happen and you don’t get to blame anybody in particular. _No one_ gets to have a life free from blameless pain-Sometimes there is no one to aim The Pointing Finger at, so you tuck it back into your fist, and hit a pillow or a wall, and live on. Mental illness, legal responsibility, and morality are complicated. Legal culpability roughly comes down to whether or not the person knew right from wrong. It is possible to be mentally ill yet competent to conduct one’s affairs and fully responsible for one’s actions. Other people’s brains are so dysfunctional that they are not capable of distinguishing right from wrong. In the case of suicide, mental illness (and I’m not convinced ALL suicides are a result of mental illness) can be a mitigating or influencing factor. Among other things, my sister appropriated a neighbor’s garage and car to do the deed, which is a form of theft and a crime. Even if she had been found before the end and revived she might have faced criminal charges for that act. Surely I can be upset and distressed about her committing a crime, even apart from being upset she killed herself. Now, there are times and extenuating circumstances where someone could be justified in breaking a law. One example might be to save a life. That would obviously not be applicable in the case of suicide. But perhaps in the mind of the person committing the deed their pain was so overwhelming that in their mind that was justified. Now, it’s no secret I don’t like suicide, but I also recognize that there is no way to entirely eliminate it. Someone highly functional who is determined to kill themself is going to do it - my late sister being one such case. Apparently, she took several months to plan it out so as to not be found before she was well and truly dead. It was the exact opposite of impulsive. So, in recognition that this is not entirely preventable I could see arguing for harm reduction. And “suicide pods” would potentially do that. Fewer young men reducing themselves to salsa against the front of a passenger train, fewer sisters “borrowing” the neighbor’s car and garage, fewer nasty messes someone else has to clean up. A suicide pod would reduce the damage done to bystanders, first responders, and whoever has to clean up messes like digging brains, bone fragments, and blood out of the drywall lining a bathroom. Why does no one make that argument - harm reduction to others? - in favor of these devices? Other than myself, who would rather NOT have suicide occur and thinks a lot, lot, lot more should be done to ease suffering before moving to death as an option. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/167 "2021-12-29T12:27:29Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > > [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > > > A small cylinder of nitrogen in a closed car with the windows rolled up should do the job very cheap. > > I’ve been told that this makes the car into a crime scene and that it may be impounded, at least temporarily. Possibly a nitpick. Definitely. My late sister’s neighbor was pretty pissed off at losing access to both her car and her garage until the police were done processing the scene. > [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > Any small and enclosed space will do. Which space will, again, be treated as a crime scene until proved otherwise. How long that will take may vary considerably. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/168 "2021-12-29T22:32:13Z")
> [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > Any small and enclosed space will do. > **[Suicide bag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bag)** > > A suicide bag, also known as an exit bag or hood, is part of a euthanasia device consisting of a large plastic bag with a drawcord used to commit suicide through inert gas asphyxiation. It is usually used in conjunction with a flow of an inert gas that is lighter or less dense than air, like helium or nitrogen. Continuing to breathe expels carbon dioxide and this prevents the panic, sense of suffocation and struggling before unconsciousness, known as the hypercapnic alarm response: 45  c Suicide ... ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/169 "2021-12-29T22:57:29Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > [Suicide bag - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bag) Huh. Well I guess that’s about as small and enclosed as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740/170 "2021-12-29T23:01:10Z")
You can get smaller. I remember reading in either the Washington Post or the Philadelphia Inquirer (both respectable papers) about the death of a local girl. She, for some reason, had a tube of Supergue or Krazy Glue or some such on her bed. In her sleep, she bit down on the tube. It sealed her mouth and nostrils shut. I vowed to be VERY careful with my adhesives from then on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-pods-now-legal-in-switzerland/955740.md?page=8)