Posted by The Euthanasia Coaster is a 2010 art project by Lithuanian designer Julijonas Urbonas: a hypothetical roller coaster designed to kill its passengers, shown as a model at the Science Gallery in Dublin in 2011. It has never been built, and its creator presents it as a provocation about the relationship between technology and death.
The Euthanasia Coaster was born from a 2010 project. This unusual attraction was conceived, on paper, by the Lithuanian engineer and designer Julijonas Urbonas. According to its creator, this roller coaster would allow people to die “with elegance and euphoria”, and could be used either for euthanasia or as a form of capital punishment.
The origin of the Euthanasia Coaster
Urbonas has said he was inspired directly by John Allen, president of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, one of the oldest roller coaster builders. Allen used to joke about the “ultimate” roller coaster, a ride that would send passengers off alive and bring them back dead.
The project became known in 2011, when it was exhibited at the Science Gallery in Dublin.
How it would work
The car with its passengers, still alive, would first climb a steep 510-metre lift hill. That height would allow a drop at about 360 km/h, needed for the second part of the “ride”. After the drop, the car would go through a series of loops, each smaller than the last. At the end of the loops the car would reach a straight stretch with its passengers dead.
According to the design, the extreme forces of the loops would deprive the brain of oxygen, causing loss of consciousness and then death.
The idea has been widely criticised, especially by the campaign group Care Not Killing, which opposes euthanasia, even though the Euthanasia Coaster is only an artist’s concept and not a project meant to be built.
Below is a video showing what a ride on this macabre attraction would look like.
The designer’s view
In an interview with Vice, Urbonas explained that the project drew on several sources of inspiration: the halt in the evolution of roller coasters, the disappearance of death rituals in modern society and speculative, science-fiction design. He used words like “pleasure” and “elegance” deliberately, to play on both their physiological and their aesthetic and ethical meanings.
What do you think of this project? An artistic provocation, or an idea that shouldn’t even be imagined?
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