In a first, an American woman used a suicide pod to take her own life. The process took place in Switzerland. It’s done by pumping in only nitrogen gas, so the person will lose goes dizzy, loses consciousness and eventually dies. Enter futurama memes.
Several people already got arrested, as the capsule hasnt gone through the medical/clinical testing required and because the gas used, nitrogen, isnt allowed to be used in this way medically. A few days ago a Bundesrat (member of the federal executive) just called it illegal. Now we will see, if the (cantonal, then probably the federal) judicative branch says the same.
Are you swedish or well versed on their government? I’d like to know how it’s structured if you are able to speak to it
What does being Swedish have to do with anything?
I think this is a Sweden<->Switzerland issue.
No it’s pure pebkac
Congrats. I make a mistake and you act like a complete piece of shit.
I could say the same. Hurray?
I would also like to hear the statement from the Swedish government, on this news from Switzerland.
Was an accidental mistype
The worst kind
that made me chuckle
I am swiss and I know how our system works pretty well, I am a teacher
Oh awesome! How does your governmental system work? How is it structured?
For me in the states we have 3 branches, it sounds like you have something similar?
Yes, 3 branches (just the standard separation of powers) and 3 “levels” (with the judicative branch 4 depending on the case). Swiss and US system is very similar. The big and important difference is the election system. The US has the shitty system that forces a two-party-situation over the years. We have a more proportional system, where you vote for a party (actually a list by a party but thats a detail) and for candidates. Then the seats are spread to the parties, if your chosen party doesnt win a seat, your vote isnt wasted (which would then require strategic voting which leads to two parties). Your vote is passed on to another party. Which one that will be, your party decides. So if you vote for “radical-left-party” and its members, this vote isnt wasted bit goes to another leftleaning party, which has a “Listenverbindung” (Joint up lists) with the “radical-left-party”.
And of course we have direct democracy (voting often on singular laws, also statewide/canton/communal) and we dont have gerrymandering but just the normal division into “Gemeinden” (literally “community”, which would be a county? or village/city in the US).
I dont want to be obnoxious or condecending, but i think the swiss has one of the best democratic systems while the US has a very bad system considering the US is known to be democratic and even the birthplace of democracy. It turns out that later updates to democracy were needed. :D
Man that sounds amazing. I honestly am pretty envious of your system. For your voting system, are you allowed to specify a preferred alternative similar to ranked voting or how does that work precisely?
Technically we have a open-list party-list proportional representation for the Nationalrat (one part of the legislative on federal level, like the congress in the US). This is the most interesting one in my opinion. Other parts of the political body do have slightly different systems I think, the Ständerat (kinda like the senate) even has a majority system.
I went down a YT rabbithole, because of your comments :D Short, kinda maths-video about different votingsystems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaxVCsnox_4 A longer math/maths-history video by veritasium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf7ws2DF-zk More about the tradition and culture in swiss politics (altho a bit romantic i must say) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ5pmW3l8tU
Imagine what could have happened given this pod’s lack of approval by medical authorities. It could have gotten somebody killed!
It could have caused excruciating agony
The pod still has to be tested an approved to meet certain standards and regulations to ensure a dignified passing.
Even something as simple as a small leak could prevent the patient from dying, and they may wake back up with severe brain damage, or failing to properly filter out CO2 would cause tremendous distress before their death, or pressure irregularities may induce or trigger various pains. And so on.