The macabre concept of a 'euthanasia roller coaster' that thrills you... then kills you

By Julian Gavaghan

An engineer has come up with macabre rollercoaster concept where passengers are thrilled and then ‘killed’.

The chilling Euthanasia Coaster is a theoretical machine engineered to ‘humanely, with elegance and euphoria, take the life of a human being’.

It is designed to subject the rider to a series of unique experiences from euphoria to thrill and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness.

When travelling at 100m/s, the passenger would then pass away following a lack of oxygen reaching the brain.

The surreal structure is the brainchild of Lithuanian engineer Julijonas Urbonas.

Julijonas has been involved in the field of amusement park development since his childhood and describes himself as an architect and engineer whose work is ‘artistic and philosophical’.
He said: ‘Thanks to the marriage of the advanced cross-disciplinary research in space medicine, mechanical engineering, material technologies and, of course, gravity, the fatal journey is made pleasing, elegant and meaningful.

‘Celebrating the limits of the human body but also the liberation from the horizontal life, this 'kinetic sculpture' is in fact the ultimate roller coaster.’

Julijonas' design is inspired by the words of John Allen, the former president of the famous ride maker, Philadelphia Toboggan Company.

Allen once said: ‘The ultimate roller coaster is built when you send out twenty-four people and they all come back dead.’

However, the surreal concept has been criticised by a leading anti-euthanasia organisation which sees the ‘imaginative’ coaster as something which could be easily abused.

Dr Peter Saunders from Care Not Killing said: ‘Whilst appreciating the artist’s sense of humour and light-heartedness, we also need to remember that the life a human being cannot ever be taken ‘humanely with elegance and euphoria’ and with this method the last sensation would more probably be one of overwhelming vertigo and fright.

‘Euthanasia rightly remains illegal because any law allowing it could so easily be abused.
‘Vulnerable people - the sick, elderly, disabled or depressed - would feel under pressure, whether real or imagined, to request early death.

‘Let’s hope that this imaginative method never becomes legal.’