Euthanasia campaigner Dr Florian Willet described the first death in the controversial Sarco capsule on Monday as “peaceful, swift and dignified”.
Co-president of The Last Resort, the company set up to operate the capsule, he is said to have been the only person to witness the 64-year-old American woman’s death when she pressed a button to release nitrogen gas into the chamber.
It was the culmination of a lifetime of right-to-die advocacy for Willet, but almost immediately afterward, police arrived and arrested the 47-year-old, taking him and several others into custody, where they remain.
The public prosecutor’s office in the Swiss region of Schaffhausen, where the launch took place, confirmed yesterday that it had opened “criminal proceedings against several people for inducing and aiding and abetting suicide.”
The German-born activist, who describes himself as an economist and communication psychologist, previously worked as a media spokesperson for euthanasia clinic Dignitas, before joining The Last Resort.
When asked about what inspired his work in a recent interview, he described how he thought about taking his own life at a young age, as well as how he dealt with his father’s suicide when he was a teenager.
The Last Resort co-chairman Florian Willet (left) is seen with board member Fiona Stewart at a press conference in July.
Philip Nitschke lies in a ‘suicide capsule’ known as ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on July 8, 2024
“At the age of five, I began to consider my own death by suicide,” Willet revealed in a YouTube interview.
‘And so did my father. He committed suicide when I was 14. I didn’t really have any problems with it.
‘I mean, I felt very sad because I loved my father, but I understood immediately that my father wanted to do this because he was a rational person, which means that expecting him to stay alive just because I needed a father would mean prolonging his suffering.’
“This expectation on my part would be very selfish,” he argued. “That’s why I accepted the situation perfectly. I faced it like a teenager.”
He said he was visited by a priest and a psychiatrist, who told him his father’s death was “selfish” because he should have stayed alive for his son.
“Keeping my father alive just because I need him when I’m young is like being on a farm using horses or animals to do the work. Abusing a living being. It’s horrible,” Willet said.
Willet, who said he was raised “completely atheist,” criticized the “strange morality” he said was created by Christianity and other religions.
A member of the high-IQ society Mensa, he maintains that his “logic” and the importance he places on “empathy” have driven his thinking on the right to die.
Willet, who said he was raised “completely atheist,” criticized the “strange morality” created by religion.
Australian doctor Philip Nitschke (right), founder of the euthanasia organisation Exit International, speaks alongside Florian Willet, co-president of the organisation Last Resort
In July, introducing Sarco to the world at a news conference, he told reporters: “I’ve looked at all kinds of options available to me for dying, self-determined, and there’s no better way, in my judgment, for me, than to just breathe air without oxygen, until you lose consciousness and fall into an endless sleep.”
The Sarco 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.
Sarco inventor Dr Philip Nitschke said Monday’s launch went “as expected”, telling Dutch media: “I assume he lost consciousness after two minutes and died after five minutes.”
Last Resort cast member Fiona Stewart poses next to the Sarco suicide machine in July.
In July, Willet said Switzerland was “by far the best place” to use Sarco, because of its “wonderful liberal system.”
Swiss law generally allows assisted suicide if the person commits the lethal act themselves.
But Interior Minister Baume-Schneider, answering questions in parliament on Monday, said: “Sarco’s suicide capsule does not comply with the law on two counts.
“First, it does not meet the requirements of the Product Safety Act and therefore cannot be marketed. Second, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the purpose article of the Chemical Substances Act,” he explained.
Fiona Stewart, who sits on The Last Resort’s advisory board alongside Willet, said the group was acting on legal advice which “since 2021 has consistently determined that the use of Sarco in Switzerland would be legal”.
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