An American woman has become the first person to die from the use of a ‘Sarco suicide pod’.
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of helping the woman use the unapproved, Dutch-made device, Swiss police said Monday.
The 3D-printed capsule, invented by controversial euthanasia activist Dr. Philip Nitschke, is designed to kill its occupant by depriving them of oxygen while the capsule fills with nitrogen gas.
According to the Swiss Minister of the Interior, this is not in accordance with Swiss law. He said on Monday that it “does not meet the requirements of product safety” and that the use of nitrogen is not in accordance with chemical regulations in Switzerland.
On Tuesday, Swiss police said they had arrested two people for complicity in the death of an American woman in a wooded area in Schaffhausen, a northern city near the German border.
A photographer from the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant was on site to capture the moment the pod was first used. He was arrested by police, the newspaper reported.
Last Resort – the Swiss organization founded in July 2023 specifically to develop the pod, which states that “a good death is a fundamental human right” – confirmed in a statement that a 64-year-old woman died after using the device.
It said: “On Monday, September 23, at approximately 4:01 p.m. local time, a 64-year-old woman from the Midwest US died from use of the Sarco device.”
The company said its co-director, Dr Florian Willet, was the only person present at the death, contrary to police claims.
Dr Willet said the woman’s death had been “peaceful, swift and dignified” and had taken place “under a canopy of trees, in a private woodland retreat in the canton of Schaffhausen, close to the Swiss-German border”.
The organization said the woman had been “suffering for years from a number of serious problems” related to “severe” immune deficiency.
Earlier this month, Peter and Christine Scott, a retired British couple who have been married for 46 years, announced they had decided to end their lives simultaneously in the pod after Mrs Scott, a former nurse, was diagnosed with early-stage vascular dementia.
The 80-year-old woman and her 86-year-old husband, who have six grandchildren, are on a waiting list of 120 applicants to use the device, Last Resort said. About a quarter of the people on the list are believed to be British.
Under Swiss law, helping another person to die is not punishable as long as there is no selfish motive.
However, several districts, including Schaffhausen, have threatened criminal prosecution if the suicide capsule is used on their territory.
Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said on Monday that the capsule did not comply with Swiss law as it did not meet safety requirements on the market and the use of nitrogen was illegal.
A hut the size of a coffin
According to the Volkskrant, the unnamed woman, who had traveled to Switzerland specifically for this purpose, began the process of assisted suicide in a forest on Monday afternoon by pressing a button while lying in the capsule – a hut the size of a coffin with a window.
The news outlet said the photographer was detained by police after he photographed the scene beforehand. A lawyer who was the only person present at the time of the death was also reportedly arrested.
The woman’s death was confirmed by Dr Nitschke, the pod’s Australian inventor, who monitored her oxygen levels and heart rate remotely via a camera from Germany.
The Sarco was set up outside, in a remote location. Through a window, the woman had a view of nature, trees and the sky during her last moments.
Dr. Willet, Dr. Nitschke’s wife, then alerted the police and the Schaffhausen prosecutor, who arrived on the scene, made the arrests and confiscated the capsule, according to reports.
The body was taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for autopsy.
According to Last Resort, the deceased woman made an oral statement to Fiona Stewart, a lawyer on the institute’s advisory board, before her death, in which she indicated that she wanted to die.
In the four-minute recording, she said she had wanted to die for “at least two years” since she was diagnosed with a very serious illness that causes severe pain.
She insisted that her two sons were “completely in agreement” that this was her decision. “They are 100 percent behind me.”
Mrs Stewart said both sons, who were not present in Switzerland, had confirmed this separately in written statements to Last Resort.
“When she registered, she said she wanted to die as quickly as possible,” Ms Stewart said. The American woman was examined by a psychiatrist, who found her competent, with no psychiatric history, she added.
Controversial activist
Dr. Nitschke’s actions have caused controversy in the past. In 2006, he caused a worldwide stir by publishing The Peaceful Pill Handbook, in which he detailed dozens of suicide methods. Ten years ago, he moved to the Netherlands.
“What if we dared to imagine that our last day on this planet would also be our most exciting?” he once said of the Sarco.
“The day we die is one of the most important days of our lives,” he told De Volkskrant. “If death is inevitable, why don’t we embrace it? With this capsule, you can die wherever you want: with a view of the mountains or the ocean.
“Outside of this device, almost nothing is needed: no injection from a doctor, no illegal drugs that are difficult to obtain. This de-medicalizes death.”
According to Dr. Nitschke, the woman’s death was an important step for organizations that fight for self-determination in the area of dying.
He said he had tested his pod several times beforehand, even lying in it for five minutes this spring with an oxygen mask on his face while the pod was filled with nitrogen.
He told De Volkskrant that his invention was a more elegant version of ‘using gas and a bag over [one’s] head,” adding that it was more like passengers becoming oxygen-deprived when the pressure in an airplane cabin drops.
“We know from people who have survived that it doesn’t feel like suffocation,” he is quoted as saying. “People just keep breathing. After half a minute they get disoriented.
“They don’t really notice what’s happening to them. Some experience a mild euphoria. Then they just drift away.”
According to Last Resort, the woman only paid the 18 Swiss francs (£16) for the nitrogen.
“The Sarco is free to use,” Ms. Stewart said. “We’re not trying to make any money off of this.” The woman did have to pay additional costs, such as cremation, she said, adding that other legal euthanasia organizations charge thousands of dollars to dispose of the body.
Objections from Dignitas
However, other Swiss euthanasia organizations have spoken out against the Sarco.
Dignitas told news site SWI that professional medical suicide assistance should be carried out by “trained personnel and that every assisted suicide is monitored by the authorities (public prosecutor, police and medical officer)”.
“In light of this legally established, established and proven practice, we cannot imagine that a technological capsule for a self-determined end of life will gain much acceptance or interest in Switzerland,” the report said.
According to Erika Preisig, a physician and chair of the Basel-based organization Lifecircle, medical intervention also acts as a “gatekeeper” to prevent unnecessary suicides.
“I fear that people who are not sufficiently informed about alternatives to suicide and who have not properly considered their death wish will be helped to die in an unconscionable manner,” she told SWI.
The Swiss organizations also describe Sarco as inhumane, because the person has to die ‘alone’ in a closed capsule, separated from his or her family members.
Dr Nitschke wants to use the Sarco-pod elsewhere. He recently wrote to Liam McArthur, the MSP who wants to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland, urging him to introduce the device.
