Authorities in Schaffhausen canton, Switzerland, have detained individuals in connection with a suspected assisted suicide.
The investigation, initiated after a tip regarding a cabin in Merishausen, focuses on potential incitement and accessory to suicide.
The deceased, an elderly U.S. citizen, may have used a Sarco suicide capsule, marking the first reported use of this device.
The Sarco capsule is a nitrogen-filled, coffin-sized machine designed for self-administered euthanasia, developed by the pro-euthanasia group Exit International.
Exit International, in a statement, claimed responsibility for the incident, stating that the woman, suffering from a debilitating immune disease, died on Monday in a Sarco capsule.
“The capsule, an airtight cabin the size of a coffin, offers, according to its creators, a ‘quick, peaceful and reliable death’ without the assistance of a doctor or medication.”
“It is still unclear how Swiss justice will react to this,” the pro-suicide group’s statement continued. “The conditions set by the country are that the person with the death wish is mentally competent, that they carry out the final deadly act themselves and that the people who help have altruistic motives.”
Dr. Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, expressed satisfaction with the capsule’s operation, stating that it provided a “non-drug, peaceful death” as intended.
Exit International confirmed the woman’s death through Nitschke.
Switzerland legalized assisted dying in 1941, allowing for self-administered death without “external assistance” and barring involvement from individuals with “self-serving motives.”
The Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen gas to induce sleep and eventual suffocation within 10 minutes, was first showcased at the Venice Design Festival in 2019.