Euthanasia Coaster: Assisted Suicide

[nelson]

The Euthanasia Coaster: A Concept Conceived Controversially

The "Euthanasia Coaster" is an amusement park ride conceptualized by artist Julijonas Urbonas. It was put forward as a thought experiment-one that raises ethical questions about euthanasia and the nature of life and death. This roller coaster has been designed to cause quick death, owing to a series of loops and high G-forces inducing loss of consciousness to eventually result in a peaceful death, conceptually speaking.

This sounds not only provocative but highly controversial-a statement that is supposed to stir debates on the morality of euthanasia, with all such connotations of technology use. Mixing design with philosophy and ethics, it comes out as a point where human experience and technology meet.

Key Aspects

 

Design: The coaster was to be 1,600 feet high and was to have seven inversions. The G-forces throughout this ride would be so extreme that they would black out the passengers and eventually kill them.

Philosophical Implications: The more philosophical implications here would be that Urbonas wanted to make the coaster provoke thought about the nature of death and the choices involved with euthanasia. It brings up questions dealing with things such as autonomy, the right to die, and maybe even any possible function of technology within the decisions of end-of-life situations.

Public Reception: Everything from interest to complete endorsement of the idea because of its intellectual weight has been expressed, while some have also expressed unease and condemnation for its insensitive consideration of the gravity of euthanasia. Shockingly, this was understood to be a remark regarding the manner in which society considers death, although for some, this was a bold utterance of freedom of expression in art.

Ethical Debate: The Euthanasia Coaster can be used to open the discussion of many related ethical debates, including the morality of assisted dying, the worth of a human life, and how society would approach the end-of-life decision. More Info

The Euthanasia Coaster was first exhibited in the HUMAN+ exhibition at the Science Gallery in Dublin, 2011.
These have included the Sarco suicide pod and the Exit machine. The Euthanasia Coaster is an art and shouldn't be taken literal.