The Sarco euthanasia capsule came about in an attempt to create a non-pharmacological (and therefore non-medical - no doctors required) means of a self-determined and peaceful death. It was the evolution of an earlier invention by Philip Nitschke, the ‘Deliverance Machine’ which was successfully used by four terminally ill people in Darwin Australia during the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act in 1996-97.
The initial purpose of the Deliverance Machine was to return the control of the dying act to the patient. Rather than the doctor delivering the lethal injection, the machine delivered the lethal drugs, but only after it was activated by the patient.