The offices of Dr. Philip Nitschke, inventor of the Sarco suicide capsule, were raided by police in the Netherlands, local media report, days after an American woman became the first person to end her life in the capsule.
In a joint operation with Swiss authorities, Dutch police reportedly On Monday they searched the premises of the euthanasia organization Exit International in Haarlem and confiscated computers and a Sarco prototype.
A finished version of the device was used in the death of a 64-year-old mother of two last week in a forest in Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland.
Dr. Florian Willet, an associate of Nitschke and co-president of Swiss operator Sarco The Last Resort, was among several people arrested at the scene.
They were questioned on suspicion of complicity in the suicide, police said, as they continue to investigate whether other crimes have been committed.
Controversial assisted dying advocate Nitschke, often nicknamed Dr Death, was not present at the death but watched it via video link to a camera inside the capsule. It is unclear whether he could be extradited to face charges.
Philip Nitschke enters a known suicide capsule in Rotterdam, Netherlands, July 8, 2024
The Sarco capsule at the location where it was allegedly used by a 64-year-old American woman
The Sarco capsule was located in a remote forest in Merishhausen, Switzerland.
The Sarco is designed to allow the person inside to press a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. Then the person falls asleep and dies of asphyxiation within minutes.
Nitschke later said the death went “fine” and “looked exactly as we expected.”
“I estimated that he lost consciousness within two minutes and died five minutes later,” he told the Volksrant newspaper.
“We saw some nervous muscle movements, but he was probably already unconscious.”
Assisted dying is allowed in Switzerland as long as there is no “external assistance” and those who help them die do not do so for “any selfish reason.”
The woman who used the device reportedly suffered from “a very serious illness involving severe pain” and had wanted to die for “at least two years,” and Nitschke said she had pressed it “immediately” after entering the capsule. .
After being notified of her death, the police rushed into the forest, where they discovered the woman’s lifeless body inside the capsule and arrested several people.
Exit International is a nonprofit organization fighting for the right to die. It was founded by Nitschke in 1997 and claims to have around 30,000 members.
Writing in
The Australian-born former GP previously helped four terminally ill patients end their lives in his home country before the Terminally Ill Rights Act was repealed in 1997, leading him to create Exit International.
He and his wife, fellow assisted dying advocate Fiona Stewart, now live in the Netherlands, where Sarco was created using a 3D printer for Swiss assisted dying organization The Last Resort.
The capsule’s futuristic design is intended to resemble that of a spaceship to give those inside the feeling that they are traveling to the “great beyond.”
Tested in a Rotterdam workshop, the 3D-printable capsule cost more than 650,000 euros ($725,000) to research and develop in the Netherlands over 12 years. Future Sarcos could cost around 15,000 euros.
The Last Resort and its partners Exit International, led by Nitschke, promote Sarco as a free-to-use device that gives people autonomy over their death.
Nitschke and Stewart planned for Sarco to become an established and accessible option for euthanasia.
Speaking to MailOnline earlier this month, he said: “Our hope would be to make it available to the right people on a regular basis.”
She said at the time that the Sarco launch would occur soon and that they anticipated an investigation.
A view of the Sarco suicide machine, a 3D printed capsule that gives the user maximum control over the moment of their death.
“Let’s hope that the investigation, after its use, goes well and that the prosecutor of the corresponding canton sees that Sarco is one more option that is available to foreigners in Switzerland,” he said.
The prosecutor in Schaffhausen, the canton where the device was used on Monday, said Sarco’s creators had been warned not to use it in the region, but the warning was not heeded.
“We warned them in writing,” prosecutor Peter Sticher told Swiss media. “We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.”
Nitschke and Stewart expressed surprise at the Swiss justice department’s reaction but said they were confident they would not be prosecuted, according to their lawyer Tim Vis.
He told Dutch media: “They have always made sure that their actions are within the law, and they did so in this case.”