Pensioners sign up for double suicide pod instead of waiting for NHS treatment

Christine and Peter Scott are planning to die together in the Sarco suicide pod after 46 years of marriage (Picture: Mail on Sunday/Reuters)

Two pensioners have decided to end their lives together in a suicide pod rather than being ‘trapped by infirmity and pain’ in a crumbing NHS.

Retired RAF engineer Peter Scott, 86, said he can’t bear the thought of living without former nurse Christine, 80, since her diagnosis with early-stage vascular dementia, and has opted to die with her.

‘Look at the alternative’, Peter said during an interview at their home in the village of Mellis, Suffolk.

‘The chances of getting prompt NHS treatment for the ailments of old age seem pretty remote so you end up trapped by infirmity and pain.

‘I don’t want to go into care, to be lying in bed dribbling and incontinent – I don’t call that a life.

‘Finally, the Government swoops in to take your savings and your house to pay for it all.’

Christine and Peter first met at a jazz club (Picture: Les Wilson/MOS)

He added: ‘We have had long, happy, healthy, fulfilled lives but here we are in old age and it does not do nice things to you.

‘The idea of watching the slow degradation of Chris’s mental abilities in parallel to my own physical decline is horrific to me.

‘Obviously I would care for her to the point I could not, but she has nursed enough people with dementia during her career to be adamant she wants to remain in control of herself and her life.

‘Assisted dying gives her that opportunity and I would not want to go on living without her.

‘We understand other people may not share our feelings and we respect their position. What we want is the right to choose.

‘I find it deeply depressing we can’t do that here in the UK.’

Instead they must travel to Switzerland, where voluntary assisted suicide – when somebody is given the means to end their own life – has been legal since 1942.

They’re planning to sign up with The Last Resort, which offers a new and untested method so controversial it’s banned in one Swiss region.

Philip Nitschke’s Sarco suicide pod has been embroiled in ethical and legal controversy (Picture: Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Created by Australian-born Philip Nitschke – dubbed ‘Doctor Death’ – Sarco is supposed to work within 10 minutes by rapidly replacing oxygen with nitrogen.

His company Exit International’s website describes the concept as ‘a peaceful, even euphoric death’, with the user’s breath stopping after they lose consciousness.

But when nitrogen was used to execute a prisoner in the US for the first time this year, the death did not seem peaceful, according to one witness.

Pastor Jeff Hood described it as the worst thing he’d ever seen, taking 22 minutes in total.

Critics call Sarco a ‘glorified gas chamber’, which, according to one Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) review, could cause a painful death if it malfunctions.

Even other assisted dying organisations, like Dignitas and Lifecircle, which typically charge £10,000, have shunned Sarco.

Although a lawyer hired by Exit International claimed there was no conflict with Swiss law, this was described as ‘incorrect or at least misleading’ by Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper in 2021.

Philip Nitschke is called ‘Doctor Death’ by his critics (Picture: Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Then earlier this year, in July, public prosecutors threatened five years in prison for anyone who uses the pod to assist a death in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen.

Dr Nitschke had been hoping for Sarco’s first use to go ahead later that month, although he had earlier aimed for 2022.

The 3D-printed pod, with an inbuilt camera to record footage for a coroner, is ready to go, with a two-person version also ready for launch.

Dr Nitschke told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The capsule for two people works exactly the same as the single Sarco but there is only one button so they will decide between them who will push it.

‘Then they’ll be able to hold each other and one of them will push the button.’

Peter and Christine, grandparents of six who first met at a jazz club, are already planning their last days.

‘I’d like to go walking with Peter in the Swiss Alps, by a river’, Christine said.

‘I’d have a beautiful plate of fish for my last supper, and enjoy a great bottle of Merlot.

‘I’d make a playlist including Wild Cat Blues and The Young Ones by Cliff Richard and I’ve found a poem called Miss Me But Let Me Go, which sums up exactly how I feel.’

Christine and Peter’s decision has taken some getting used to for their kids (Picture: Les Wilson/MOS)

When they’re dead, they’d like to be cremated with their ashes scattered in the graveyard of their local church.

Despite encouraging them to move into a retirement home, the Scotts’ children have reluctantly agreed to respect their parents’ wishes.

Christine said: ‘It’s a lovely life but I have this diagnosis, and that’s crystallised our thinking.

‘Medicine can slow vascular dementia but it can’t stop it. At the point I thought I was losing myself, I’d say, “This is it, Pete, I don’t want to go any further”.’

Pete added: ‘I’ve said to her, “You make the decision and I’ll be with you”. Death holds no problem for me whatsoever.

‘I’d just give her a big hug and say, “Hope to see you later”.’

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to allow Labour MPs a free vote on assisted dying laws.

He backed an unsuccessful 2015 bill which would have legalised it for terminally ill people, but proposals to include other people are more contested.

The Sarco was inspired by British man Tony Nicklinson who was left unable to move or speak after a stroke.

He starved himself to death in 2012 after begging the courts to let him legally die,which they refused.

Nicklinson had approached Dr Nitschke to make a death pod that could be operated by the blink of an eye, the only communication left to him.

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