voice or eye movement. The result was the ‘Destiny Machine’ first shown publicly as part of Philip Nitschke’s ‘Dicing with Dr Death’ show at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2015. Media stemming from the Edinburgh Fringe is at:
Following discussions with Neal Nicol, a long-time associate of Dr Jack Kevorkian, features of the earlier Deliverance Machine and Dr Kevorkian’s own Mercitron Machine were integrated. The Mercitron had been used by Kevorkian and Nicol in the assisted suicides of ~ 50 patients in the US in the 1990s.
The gas that is used in the Destiny is the same compressed carbon monoxide/ nitrogen mixture (9%/91%) that was used in the original Mercitron. Delivery of the gas at ~4 liters/min is through simple nasal prongs. Gas control is determined by a modification of the original Deliverance program where a positive response to three separate questions, either through button press or other means, activates the gas control relay.
As a safety measure, a finger cuff provides the person’s cardiac rate and oxygen saturation input to the Rasberry Pi microprocessor. This microprocessor controls the process and presents the questions. The person’s cardiac trace, heart rate and oxygen saturation is displayed . When cardiac function ceases and oxygen saturation drops to zero, the microprocessor terminates the gas flow.
