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The Sarco suicide capsule has been used for the first time, its creators have confirmed, with a 64-year-old American woman believed to be the first person to die in the device.
Police in northern Switzerland said several people had been arrested on Monday and a criminal case had been opened.
The ‘Sarco’ suicide capsule is designed to allow the person inside to press a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person falls asleep and dies of asphyxiation within minutes.
The Schaffhausen cantonal public prosecutor’s office has been informed by a law firm that an assisted suicide using a Sarco capsule took place near a forestry hut in Merishausen on Monday, the police said in a statement.
He said “several people” had been arrested and prosecutors had opened an investigation into suspicion of inciting and aiding and abetting suicide.
The ‘Sarco’ capsule, which according to its creators allows its occupant to press a button and trigger his own death.
The Last Resort, the Swiss company behind the device, said in a statement to MailOnline: “On Monday 23rd September at approximately 16.01 CEST, a 64-year-old woman from the US Midwest died using the Sarco device.”
He said the organisation’s co-president, Dr Florian Willet, was the only person present at the time of the death, contrary to police reports.
He said the woman’s death had been “peaceful, swift and dignified” and had taken place “under a canopy of trees, in a private forest lodge in the canton of Schaffhausen, close to the Swiss-German border.”
The organisation said the woman “had been suffering for many years from a series of serious problems associated with severe immunocompromise”.
Sarco inventor Philip Nitschke said his device “worked exactly as it was designed to” and provided “a peaceful, unmedicated death at a time of the person’s choosing.”
Fiona Stewart, a member of The Last Resort’s advisory board and a lawyer, said The Last Resort acted at all times on the advice of its lawyers.
Sarco inventor Philip Nitschke, often nicknamed Doctor Doom, pictured at a press conference in Zurich on July 17
Last Resort cast member Fiona Stewart poses next to the Sarco suicide machine in July.
The device was used on the same day that Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the National Council that she considers the use of the Sarco to be illegal in Switzerland.
“The Sarco suicide capsule is illegal on two counts,” Baume-Schneider reportedly said.
She said it does not meet the requirements of the product safety law and “should therefore not be marketed.”
- For help and support, call the Samaritans free from a UK phone, completely anonymously, on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.
