Featured Image Credit: Exit International / ARND WIEGMANN/AFP / Getty
Warning: This article mentions topics of suicide and euthanasia.
Several people have been detained by police in Switzerland following the first use of a controversial 'suicide pod.'
The Sarco suicide pod was designed to allow someone who wishes to die by euthanasia to do so as comfortably as possible.
Those who use the pod push a button that releases nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber.
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They will then fall asleep and die by suffocation a few minutes later.
Yesterday (September 23), the Sarco was used for the first time by a US women who 'had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise.'
The 64-year-old had expressed her wish to die over a period of two years and passed away in the device at a private forest retreat in the Canton of Schaffhausen close to the Swiss-German border.
The Last Resort, the Swiss firm behind the Sarco, announced 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"
Florian Willet, co-president of The Last Resort, was present for the woman's death and said it was 'peaceful, fast and dignified.'
Following its first use, the Sarco device was seized by Swiss authorities and several people were arrested on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.
Schaffhausen Police have since released a statement reading: "The public prosecutor's office of the canton of Schaffhausen has opened criminal proceedings against several persons for incitement and aiding and abetting suicide (Article 115 of the Swiss Criminal Code) and several persons have been placed in police custody.
"The public prosecutor's office of the canton of Schaffhausen was informed on Monday, September 23, 2024 at 4:40 p.m. by a law firm that an assisted suicide with the Sarco capsule had taken place in the afternoon at a forest hut in Merishausen.
"As a result, the Schaffhausen police, including the forensic emergency service, and the public prosecutor's office of the canton of Schaffhausen went to the scene of the crime.
"The Sarco suicide capsule was secured and the deceased person was taken to the IRMZ for an autopsy.
"In addition, several people in the Merishausen area were taken into police custody. The public prosecutor's office is also investigating the violation of other criminal offenses.
"Based on official and investigative secrecy, no further information will be provided at this time. The presumption of innocence applies."
While Swiss law allows assisted suicide, it must be done so without 'external assistance.'
Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider says that use of the Sarco is illegal for two reasons.
"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."
Despite the controversy surrounding the pod, its designer, Dr Philip Nitschke, said the device 'had performed exactly as it had been designed to do.'
Nitschke has also previously spoken out about further removing restrictions around assisted dying: "We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves."
