A Lithuanian has designed a rollercoaster that produces enough G forces to kill you.
In the places where you are legally permitted to end your life – Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington – the process is very sterile. Medical staff inject those who wish to die with a poison cocktail designed to cause little or no pain and the person’s life just ends. Julijonas Urbonas, a Lithuanian PhD candidate at London’s Royal College of Art, wants to change that meaningless non-ceremony into a thrill ride. His idea is the “Euthanasia Coaster” which, after a climb of 1,600 feet, plummets a human body through a series of loops that produce 23 Gs of force. That much gravity prevents blood from flowing to the brain and the person dies, with a sense of euphoria.
The “Euthanasia Coaster is a hypothetic euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely – with elegance and euphoria – take the life of a human being,” writes Urbonas, who has worked at an amusement park and is a big fan of roller coasters.
The coaster features a huge ascent – of the three minute ride, two is spent climbing the tower. At the top, the person riding in the car will have a chance to think about his life and the decision to end it. That’s where the final decision will be made – only by pressing a button will the euthanasia recipient take the final plunge.
“The rider has a few minutes to contemplate his decision and his life in retrospect. He would find enough time to adapt to the height and get through a series of imaginary fatal falls, while realizing that the objects on the ground are getting smaller,” said Urbonas. “The slightest movement of the car would trigger intense heart-beating and goosebumps and most importantly it would test your decision. Therefore the very top of the tower is an ideal place to give the very last word.”
It’s not clear whether you will be encouraged to raise your arms and scream the whole way down. I sure as hell would.
What is clear is that the Euthanasia Coaster is a merely a concept and exists only in a 1:500 scale model built by Urbonas. While anyone who’s played Roller Coaster Tycoon is guilty of designing a coaster that killed people, it’s very unlikely that anyone would invest so much money in building a machine simply made to kill you.
Maybe that’s because Urbonas – and the whole idea of a Euthanasia Coaster – is just plain creepy.
Source: Discovery News
