The use of the suicide pod Sarco in the Netherlands would be “socially undesirable” and unlawful, junior social care minister Vicky Maijer (PVV) said this week, following MPs questions in a debate about end-of-life care.

Providing the means to help someone to take their own life is against the law in the Netherlands but campaigners from the right to die group Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW) want the cabinet to agree to a construction in which the pod can be used.

Some 5,000 people have signed a petition but 40,000 are needed to initiate a debate in parliament.

The pod, which fills up with lethal nitrogen gas when the person inside pushes a button, was used at the beginning of October to end the life of a 64-year-old American woman in Switzerland.

Those present were arrested and in Haarlem the home of the pod’s inventor Philip Nitschke was searched and a prototype of the pod confiscated on behalf of the Swiss authorities.

Nitschke has said he is currently 3D printing a new pod which he plans to give to CLW.

The organisation, which also introduced the controversial suicide powder substance X, resulting in suspended jail sentences for several of its members, said the pod would be made available to anyone over the age of 55.

People who want to use the pod could register their wish and then wait at least six months at the end of which would be another period of reflection and a test to see if the person is capable of making the decision independently. The pod would then be delivered to a place of the person’s choice.

“This will give people the opportunity to die where they want to,” CLW chairman Bert Homan told the Volkskrant.

ChristenUnie MP Don Ceder called the pod “detestable and dangerous” while SGP MP Diederik van Dijk said its use is “chilling” and called for the CLW to be banned as soon as possible from social media.

Junior minister Maijer said in her reaction that the use of the Sarco is “socially undesirable” and pointed to the coalition agreement which states nothing will be changed regarding and against end of life legislation.

“The cabinet wants to limit the number of suicides. It is punishable by law in the Netherlands to help someone to die or to give them the means to do so so. The pod is one of those means,” she said.

Crime

Earlier justice minister David van Weel said the personal use of the pod is legal. “If the person uses the pod for him or herself, he or she is not committing a crime,” he said. “It’s up to the public prosecution office to ascertain if any third parties involved should be prosecuted for assisting a suicide,” he said.

CLW chairman Homan said people can register for use of the pod from next week. “Dozens of people have already done so spontaneously,” Homan, who is also a councillor for the VVD in Assen, told the paper.

Homan said he wants to have a dialogue with politicians about the Sarco. “If my party refuses I don’t think they will have my vote in the next elections,” he said.