Swiss police have arrested several people after a controversial futuristic-looking capsule designed to enable occupants to commit suicide was used for the first time, authorities said Tuesday.
Police in the northern Schaffhausen canton, which borders Germany, said the so-called “Sarco” capsule was deployed in a forest in the municipality of Merishausen on Monday.
A police statement said prosecutors in Schaffhausen had launched criminal proceedings against several people on charges of “inducing, aiding and abetting suicide.” The statement also said several people had been detained, though no details were given about them or the deceased.
A spokesperson for The Last Resort, the company that makes the capsule, said the deceased was a 64-year-old American woman who suffered from a severely weakened immune system.
Florian Willett, co-president of The Last Resort, was among the four detainees, along with a Dutch journalist and two Swiss men, the spokesperson said. Willett was the only other person present when the woman took her own life, the spokesperson said.
In a statement released by The Last Resort, Willett described the death as “peaceful, quick and dignified.”
A Last Resort spokesperson said the woman underwent a psychological evaluation before ending her life.
A spokesman for prosecutors in Schaffhausen declined to provide details or confirm the four detentions.
Built with smooth, aerodynamic lines, the “Sarco” causes death when the person inside it releases nitrogen gas, reducing oxygen levels to lethal levels. It is the brainchild of Philip Nitschke, an Australian physician renowned for his work on assisted suicide since the 1990s.
Switzerland has been a magnet for advocates of assisted suicide because of its laws which make it legal there, and The Last Resort says its legal advice was that it could be used.
The capsule has attracted considerable media attention and there is debate among authorities over whether they will allow it.
Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baum-Schneider said on Monday that the capsule does not meet the requirements of the product safety law, and the use of nitrogen in it is not legally justified.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
