Advocacy groups in Switzerland behind a so-called suicide capsule said on Sunday (Oct 6) that they suspended the process of taking applications to use it – as an investigation into its first use in the country was completed.
A report by the news agency Associated Press said that the president of Switzerland-based The Last Resort, Florian Willet, was being held in pretrial detention.
Earlier, the police arrested Willet and several other people following the death of an unidentified 64-year-old woman from the United States who last month became the first person to use the device, known as the “Sarco,” in a forest in the northern Schaffhausen region.
The woman died on September 23.
How does the capsule work?
The Sarco capsule is designed to let a person sitting in a reclining seat inside push a button that injects nitrogen gas from a tank underneath into the sealed chamber.
This allows the person to fall asleep and then die of suffocation in a few minutes.
Exit International, whose founder Dr Philip Nitschke is based in the Netherlands, is behind the 3D-printed device that cost over $1 million to develop.
On Sunday, advocacy groups said that 371 people were in the process of applying to use the suicide capsule in Switzerland as of September 23, adding, that these applications were suspended after its first use.
The death of the first user of the capsule
Exit International said on Sunday that The Last Resort’s Florian Willet was the only person present at the 64-year-old woman’s death on September 23. The woman was said to be suffering from severe immune compromise.
On the same day as the woman died, Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told parliament that the use of the Sarco would not be legal.
(With inputs from agencies)