The Euthanasia Coaster

Lithuanian artistJulijonas UrbonasUrbonas built a "kinetic sculpture" model of his Euthanasia Coaster idea in 2010. He designed the device to help people end their lives with an allegedly euphoric exit. Urbonas consulted Dr. Michael Gresty of the Spatial Disorientation Lab at Imperial College for specs. He also asked Paulius Vitkauskas to make the model.

A full Euthanasia Coaster drops its rider 500 meters, over 1,600 feet, then sends them through seven back-to-back loops. The coaster hits 100 meters per second (nearly 224 miles per hour) and reaches 10 g-forces, causing brain oxygen loss, unconsciousness, and death.The drop is over 1,600 feet.Urbonas pitched the concept as art and a way to solve overpopulation. The coaster would send riders through seven back-to-back loops. It then hits 100 meters per second (nearly 224 miles per hour) and reaches 10 g-forces, causing loss of brain oxygen, unconsciousness, and death.

Julijonas Urbonas pointed to the g-forces and euphoria pilots felt for seconds. He believed the more-than-1,600-foot drop would push riders near terminal velocity before stopping them with an air pillow. The first of seven 360-degree loops followed, pressing on rider organs and making breathing harder. Each loop increased blood pooling in the lower legs and lowered oxygenated blood to the brain.

After regaining consciousness once or twice, the rider would die and take the remaining loops as "insurance."

The rest of the ride, six or five loops, proceeds with the body numb. This ensures the trip ends the life. The rider dies, or more accurately, the brain dies from total oxygen deprivation, which is a legal death indicator in many places.

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio theorizes.Antonio DamasioDamasio argues the coaster's design does not guarantee a painless, euphoric end. He claims riders will instead feel "nausea and discomfort" during the drop and loops.

Damasio called the piece "not fun at all as art, and... preposterous as a technical device. Curiously, it works as provocation, no matter the goal. So be it. Mostly it is sad, sad, sad."

Dr. Peter Saunders of the UK-based organizationCare Not Killingadded:

The life of a human cannot be taken "humanely with elegance and euphoria"... and with this method, the last feeling will likely be intense vertigo and fear.

Building the Euthanasia Coaster goes beyond questionable taste and budget. Laura Secorun Palet of Ozy pointed this out:

The Euthanasia Coaster would exceed three times the height of the Kingda Ka, the world's tallest roller coaster, which cost $25 million and took 18 months to build.

Several people made computer simulations of the coaster and uploaded them to YouTube. If the attraction were real, no rider of the Euthanasia Coaster could review it later.

Julijonas Urbonas's website shows the Euthanasia Coaster and other strange projects. These feature artistic touches and technical accuracy.

The Euthanasia Coaster (2010) is a death machine shaped like a roller coaster. It engineers a humane experience, mixing elegance and euphoria to end a human life. Riders face intense motion, causing feelings ranging from thrill and euphoria to tunnel vision and losing consciousness, ending in death.

Many people agreed with the artist's view on the concept.The concept won the Public Prize for New Technological Art of Update 2013 in Ghent, Belgium.The concept won the Public Prize for New Technological Art of Update 2013 in Ghent, Belgium.

After Julijonas Urbonas's art piece gained internet attention, it got mixed reactions. The Science Explorer reported this.The Science Explorer reported mixed reactions to Julijonas Urbonas's art piece.A NASA engineer saw the coaster and checked the science behind it.

The engineer found minor errors in aerodynamics and friction. However, he discovered amputees or people with short legs might survive because there would be little or no blood volume.

In 2015, writer and director Glenn Paton released the short film H Positive.The short film is H Positive.The short film, under ten minutes, shows the Euthanasia Coaster concept. It presents a person who would actually ride it. An obviously rich man narrates his terminal diagnosis to the audience, then outlines his plan to build the death coaster. Viewers watch him strap into the finished machine and take his final ride.

Julijonas Urbonas wanted to bring back a desire for the extinction of death rituals and current sci-fi design to create the Euthanasia Coaster.He wanted to bring back a ritualistic aspect to the act of dying.Urbonas thought the ride would give excitement to those choosing to end their lives, and also to those watching the death happen.Michael John Gorman stated this.Michael John Gorman, director of the Dublin Science Gallery, agreed.

Julijonas Urbonas designed the Euthanasia Coaster to handle the boredom of long life. He lets people leave life in a euphoric state using an amusement park ride built to kill.

Julijonas Urbonas once directed an amusement park in Klaipeda, Lithuania. He merged that experience with the halt of rollercoaster progress, the end of death rituals, and current sci-fi design to make the Euthanasia Coaster.He merged the experience of directing an amusement park in Klaipeda, Lithuania with the halt of rollercoaster progress, the end of death rituals, and current sci-fi design to create the Euthanasia Coaster.Urbonas used his engineering, design, creative, and artistic skills to make the Euthanasia Coaster. This kinetic sculpture of an extreme death machine provokes reactions.

Julijonas Urbonas was a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art, London, when he came up with the Euthanasia Coaster concept. According to him, the coaster could serve as a tool to assist with thinning out the population of people on Earth. Moreover, riders are voluntary, with the height of the coaster meant to give people time to rethink their decision. The design even includes a button for the rider to push to initiate the over-1,600-foot drop.

Urbonas believed "'humane' voluntary death could be more meaningful, personal, ritualistic," thanks to his coaster.

Julijonas Urbonas created The Emancipation Kit in 2009, which he described as a "set of emetic tools and pharmaceuticals, specially designed for the eviction of the contents of the stomach." Its only purpose was to assist with bulimia.

His 2008 Objects for Arithmomaniacs sought to provide a quick fix for people who feel compelled to count everything. He created a rocking chair capable of counting rocks, as well as shoes with built-in step-counters and other similar objects.

His other project, Airtime, lifted and dropped participants who stood on the installation at random times, prompting them to feel weightless for a moment. Likewise, another project involved "the principle of a centrifuge [to expose] the love riders to variable gravitational forces."

In a 2014 interview with Blake Butler of Vice, Julijonas Urbonas said someone who wanted to test out the Euthanasia Coaster contacted him, but only if the attraction became a reality. The "potential self-murderer" connected with Urbonas, along with several other people intrigued with the death machine.

A pilot, for instance, let Urbonas know he believed he could "beat" the coaster by "wearing a pilot's anti-gravity pants that inflate during a high-g aircraft maneuver and push the blood upwards."