The Sarco suicide pod has been used for the first time, its creators have confirmed, with an American woman aged 64 believed to be the first person to have died in the device ‘under a canopy of trees’ in Switzerland.
Police in northern Switzerland said that several people were detained on Monday, and that prosecutors had opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.
The ‘Sarco’ suicide capsule is designed to allow a person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, according to its creators. The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes.
Prosecutors in Schaffhausen canton were informed by a law firm that an assisted suicide involving use of the Sarco capsule had taken place Monday near a woodland cabin in Merishausen, police said.
The woman who died in the capsule had reportedly been suffering with ‘a very serious illness that involves severe pain’ and had wished to die for ‘at least two years’.
The Last Resort, the Swiss firm behind the Sarco, said in a statement: ‘On Monday 23 September, at approximately 16.01 CEST, a 64-year old woman from the the mid-west in the USA died using the Sarco device.’
It said the co-president of the organisation, Florian Willet, was the sole person present for the death, contrary to police reports.
Dutch newspaper Volkskrant has reported that police detained one of its photographers who wanted to take pictures of the use of the Sarco.
It said Schaffhausen police had indicated the photographer was being held at a police station but declined to give a further explanation.
According to Last Resort, Willet said the woman’s death had been ‘peaceful, fast and dignified’, taking place ‘under a canopy of trees, at a private forest retreat in the Canton of Schaffhausen close to the Swiss-German border.’
The organisation said the woman ‘had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise.’
The inventor of the Sarco, Philip Nitschke, said his device ‘had performed exactly as it had been designed to do,’ saying it had provided a ‘non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person’s choosing’.
Police, including forensics teams, swooped on the scene after being notified by a legal firm that an assisted suicide with the device had taken place.
The Last Resort, who had anticipated that there would need to be an investigation after the launch of the device, said it had informed the police that it had been used.
Cops seized the Sarco capsule and arrested a number of people in the Merishausen area were taken into police custody.
A post-mortem will now be carried out on the deceased person by the Institute of Legal Medicine Zurich (IRMZ).
The Last Resort Advisory Board member and lawyer, Fiona Stewart said that the company was acting at all times on the advice of their lawyers.
The device was used on the same day as Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the National Council that she considers the use of the Sarco in Switzerland to be illegal.
‘The Sarco suicide capsule is not legal in two respects,’ Baume-Schneider reportedly said.
‘On one hand, it does not fulfill 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.’
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.
Switzerland is among the only countries in the world where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives, and is home to a number of organizations that are dedicated to helping people kill themselves.
Some lawmakers in Switzerland have argued that the law is unclear and have sought to close what they call legal loopholes.
Nitschke and his partner Stewart have said that they want Sarco to become an established and accessible option for euthanasia.
Some 120 applicants hoping to use the machine to end their lives, according to The Last Resort, with around a quarter of those on the waiting list said to be British people.
Among them are a former RAF engineer and his wife, who revealed to the Mail that they had signed up to become the first couple to use a double suicide pod.
Peter and Christine Scott, who have been married for 46 years, made the decision after former nurse Christine, 80, was recently diagnosed with early-stage vascular dementia.
Like the solo pod, The Last Resort said the two-person pod would be constructed using a 3D printer, and could be ready for use as early as January.
The pods work by replacing air, which is 21 per cent oxygen and 79 per cent nitrogen, with 100 per cent nitrogen.
This renders the occupant unconscious and they then stop breathing in a process that its creators expected to take less than ten minutes.
A camera inside the pod records their final moments and the footage is handed to a coroner.
Nitschke and his associates designed Sarco, which is made using a 3-D printer, to be free, with people just paying for their body to be removed by funeral directors.
The only anticipated additional cost was expected to be £16 for the liquid nitrogen used in the pod, making it more economical than other assisted dying clinics, which typically charge £10,000.
- UK: For help and support, call the Samaritans for free from a UK phone, completely anonymously, on 116 123 or go to samaritans.org.
- US: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
