Police in northern Switzerland said Tuesday that several people have been arrested and a criminal case has been opened in connection with the suspected death of a person in a so-called “suicide pod.”
The “Sarco” pod has been in the works for years, but up until now has never been used.
The Sarco pods — short for sarcophogus — allow a person to control their death inside the pod by quickly reducing internal oxygen levels. The person intending to end their life is required to answer a set of pre-recorded questions, then press a button that floods the interior with nitrogen. The oxygen level inside is quickly reduced from 21 per cent to one per cent, and the person is supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a matter of minutes.
After death, the pod can be used as a coffin.
Prosecutors in Schaffhausen canton were informed by a law firm that an “assisted suicide” involving the Sarco had taken place Monday near a forest cabin in Merishausen, regional police said in a statement. They said “several people” were taken into custody and prosecutors opened an investigation on suspicion of inciting, and aiding and abetting suicide.
The Sarco suicide pod, a 3D-printable ‘death machine’ that can be transported to any location.
Courtesy / Philip Nitschke
It’s reported that officers recovered the device and a body at the scene.
Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive,” according to a government website.
Currently, assisted suicide in Switzerland means swallowing a capsule filled with a cocktail of controlled substances that puts the person into a deep coma before they die.
Switzerland, unlike some other countries including the Netherlands, does not allow euthanasia, which sees health-care practitioners inject patients with lethal drugs at their request and under specific conditions.
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There are a number of organizations in the country that are dedicated to helping people end their lives and they allow foreigners to enter their country to legally kill themselves. There has been much criticism from lawmakers that the Swiss rules surrounding assisted suicide are unclear and full of legal loopholes.
Exit International, an assisted suicide organization in the Netherlands behind the development of the Sarco pod, said in a statement that a 64-year-old American woman with “severe immune compromise” died Monday near the German border in one of its devices.
Fiona Stewart, member of the advisory board and COO of The Last Resort, a Swiss human rights non-profit association focused on assisted suicide, presents the Sarco suicide capsule in Zurich on July 17, 2024.
Arnd Wiegmann / AFP via Getty Images
It said Florian Willet, co-president of The Last Resort, a Swiss affiliate of Exit International, was the only person present and described her death as “peaceful, fast and dignified.”
In July, The Last Resort said it anticipated the Sarco pod would be used for the first time this year.
Also in that month, Swiss newspaper Blick reported that Peter Sticher, a state prosecutor in Schaffhausen, wrote to Exit International’s lawyers saying any operator of the suicide capsule could face criminal proceedings if it was used there — and any conviction could bring up to five years in prison.
In other Swiss regions, prosecutors have also indicated that use of the suicide capsule could lead to prosecution.
Previously, Dr. Philip Nitschke, the developer of the pods and founder of Exit International, told SwissInfo.ch the machines can be “towed anywhere for the death” and one of the most positive features of the capsules is that they can be transported to an “idyllic outdoor setting.”
“We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves,” Nitschke said in 2021. “Our aim is to develop an artificial intelligence screening system to establish the person’s mental capacity. Naturally, there is a lot of skepticism, especially on the part of psychiatrists.”
“The benefit for the person who uses it is that they don’t have to get any permission, they don’t need some special doctor to try and get a needle in, and they don’t need to get difficult drugs,” Nitschke said in a 2020 demonstration of the device.
Australian euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke addresses a press conference of The Last Resort, a Swiss human rights, non-profit association focused on assisted suicide, to present the Sarco in Zurich on July 17, 2024.
Arnd Wiegmann / AFP via Getty Images
In a 2018 personal essay for HuffPost, Nitschke said his focus in the realm of assisted suicide has shifted over the years “from supporting the idea of a dignified death for the terminally ill (the medical model) to supporting the concept of a good death for any rational adult who has ‘life experience’ (the human rights model).”
“Time and again, we see the comfort and reassurance that is gained from knowing one has an ‘exit plan,’ so to speak, within reach, should the need ever arise. Being in control gives confidence. It restores one’s sense of self. And, yes, it generates dignity in living, knowing one will have dignity in dying,” he wrote.
Nitschke added that people who use the capsule will not feel any type of suffocation or choking in the low-oxygen environment. Rather, they will “feel their best.”
In the Exit International statement on Tuesday, Nitschke said he was “pleased that the Sarco had performed exactly as it had been designed … to provide an elective, non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person’s choosing.”
On Monday, Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider was asked in Swiss parliament about the legal conditions for the use of the Sarco capsule, and suggested its use would not be legal.
“On one hand, it does not fulfil the demands of the product safety law, and as such, must not be brought into circulation,” she said. “On the other hand, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the article on purpose in the chemicals law.”
Over the summer, a 54-year-old U.S. woman with multiple health ailments had planned to be the first person to use the device, but those plans were abandoned.
— With files from The Associated Press
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If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911 for immediate help.
For immediate mental health support, call 988. For a directory of support services in your area, visit the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention at suicideprevention.ca.
Learn more about preventing suicide with these warning signs and tips on how to help.
