Police in northern Switzerland said on Tuesday that several people had been arrested and a criminal case had been opened in connection with the alleged murder in a so-called “suicide pod.”
The pod “Sarco” has been in the works for years, but until now it has never been used.
Sarco pods – short for sarcophogus – allow a person to control their own death inside the pod by rapidly reducing the oxygen levels inside. A person who intends to end his life needs to answer a set of pre-recorded questions, then press a button that fills the interior with nitrogen. The oxygen level inside quickly drops from 21 percent to one, and the person must fall asleep and die of suffocation within minutes.
After death, the pod can be used as a coffin.
Schaffhausen canton prosecutors were informed by a law firm that an “assisted suicide” involving Sarco took place on Monday near a forest house in Merishausen, regional police said in a statement. They said “a number of people” were detained and prosecutors opened an investigation into allegations of inciting, aiding and abetting suicide.
Sarco suicide pod, a 3D printable ‘death machine’ that can be transported anywhere.
Source / Philip Nitschke
It is reported that the police found a machine and a body at the scene.
Swiss law allows assisted suicide as long as the person takes their own life without “external assistance” and those who help the person to die do not do so “for any selfish purpose,” according to the government’s website.
Currently, assisted suicide in Switzerland means swallowing a capsule filled with a cocktail of controlled substances that puts a person in a deep coma before they die.
Switzerland, unlike other countries including the Netherlands, does not allow euthanasia, which sees health workers injecting patients with lethal drugs at their request and under certain circumstances.
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There are many organizations in the country that are dedicated to helping people take their own lives and allow foreigners to enter their country to legally take their own lives. There has been much criticism from lawmakers that Switzerland’s laws on suicide are vague and full of legal loopholes.
Exit International, the 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 on Monday near the German border in one of its missions.
Fiona Stewart, member of the advisory board and COO of The Last Resort, a non-profit Swiss human rights organization focused on assisted suicide, presented the Sarco capsule in Zurich on July 17, 2024.
Arnd Wiegmann / AFP via Getty Images
Florian Willet, president of The Last Resort, a Swiss subsidiary of Exit International, was the only person present and described his death as “peaceful, quick and dignified.”
In July, The Last Resort said it expects the Sarco pod to be used for the first time this year.
Also that month, the Swiss newspaper Blick reported that Peter Sticher, the state prosecutor in Schaffhausen, wrote to Exit International lawyers saying that anyone using the suicide pill could face criminal charges if used there – and any conviction could bring five years. in prison.
In some Swiss regions, prosecutors have also indicated that the use of a suicide capsule could lead to prosecution.
Previously, Dr. Philip Nitschke, the inventor of the pods and the founder of Exit International, told SwissInfo.ch that the devices “can be dragged anywhere a person dies” and one of the best features of the pods is that they can be transported to. “an idyllic outdoor setting.”
“We want to remove any kind of cognitive review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves,” Nitschke said in 2021. “Our goal is to develop an artificial intelligence testing system to determine the power of the human mind. Naturally, there are many skeptics, especially from psychiatrists.”
“The benefit for the person who uses it is that he does not need to get permission, he does not need a specialist doctor to try to inject the needle, and he does not need to get hard drugs,” Nitschke said. says 2020 device display.
Australian euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke speaking at a press conference for The Last Resort, a Swiss human rights organization, focused on assisted suicide, to launch Sarco in Zurich on July 17, 2024.
Arnd Wiegmann / AFP via Getty Images
In a 2018 personal interview with HuffPost, Nitschke said his focus in the field of assisted suicide has changed over the years “from supporting the idea of ​​a dignified death for the terminally ill (the medical model) to supporting the idea of ​​a good death for any reasonable adult ‘with life experience’ (the rights model people).”
“Over and over again, we see the comfort and reassurance that comes from knowing that one has an ‘exit plan,’ so to speak, within easy reach, should the need arise. Control gives confidence. It restores a sense of self. And, yes, it brings dignity to life, knowing that one will have dignity in death,” he wrote.
Nitschke added that people using the capsule will not feel any kind of suffocation or suffocation in the low-oxygen environment. Instead, “they will feel much better.”
In a statement to Exit International on Tuesday, Nitschke said he was “pleased that Sarco has performed as designed…
On Monday, Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider was asked in the Swiss parliament about the legal conditions for the use of the Sarco capsule, and suggested that its use would be illegal.
“On the other hand, it does not meet the requirements of the product safety law, and therefore, it should not be distributed,” he said. “On the other hand, the complementary use of nitrogen does not correspond to the article for the purpose of the chemical law.”
In the summer, a 54-year-old US woman with multiple health problems 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 trouble and needs help, resources are available. In an emergency, please call 911 for immediate assistance.
For immediate mental health help, call 988. For a directory of support services in your area, visit the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention at suicideprevention.ca.
Learn more about suicide prevention with these warning signs and tips on how to help.
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