Several activists from the group “The Last Resort”, campaigning for access to the end of life, have been arrested in Switzerland. The cause: the death of an American woman in a suicide capsule. A device banned in the country.
A seriously ill 64-year-old American woman took her own life on Monday, September 23, in a corner of the forest in Switzerland using a machine in the shape of a futuristic sarcophagus, deemed illegal by the authorities, who arrested several people.
In a photo sent by the association The Last Resort, which promotes this device causing death by nitrogen hypoxia, this purple mini-cabin screwed onto wheels rests in the darkness of an undergrowth in the canton of Schaffhausen, near Merishausen, in the north of Switzerland, a stone’s throw from Germany, a few hours before its use by the sixty-year-old.
The Last Resort co-president Florian Willet, “the only person present” when the American woman from the Midwest, who suffered from a “severe immune deficiency”, died, described her passing as “peaceful, quick and dignified”.
“Criminal consequences”
She died on Monday around 4 p.m., almost at the same time as Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told MPs that the “Sarco suicide capsule is not in accordance with the law” for reasons of safety and incompatibility with the law on chemicals.
The Schaffhausen public prosecutor’s office was informed on Monday by a law firm “that an assisted suicide using the Sarco capsule had taken place in a forest cabin in Merishausen in the afternoon”.
“We found the capsule with the unconscious person inside,” Schaffhausen’s chief prosecutor, Peter Sticher, told the Swiss daily Blick. “We arrested several people (…) to prevent them from colluding with each other or hiding evidence.”
The promoters of the capsule had been warned. “We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences,” Peter Sticher said. A criminal investigation has been opened “for incitement and assistance to suicide.”
Police announced the arrests on Tuesday after Dutch daily De Volkskrant reported that one of its photographers had been arrested in connection with the case.
“Not in accordance with the law”
Assisted suicide is possible in Switzerland, under very specific conditions, but this “Sarco capsule” – named thus by its promoters – has caused a stir since its presentation in July.
Invented by Australian Philip Nitschke, a former doctor known for his controversial positions on the end of life, the capsule comes in the form of a transportable mini-cabin.
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The person wishing to end their life must lie down in it, answer a series of questions to confirm that they understand what they are doing before pressing a button that releases nitrogen.
She is expected to lose consciousness after a few breaths and die within a few minutes, according to The Last Resort.
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