Several people have been taken into police custody in Switzerland after the Sarco suicide pod was used in the northern Schaffhausen canton on Monday, local time.
It is the first time a person has died by suicide in the capsule which releases nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber to end a person’s life within minutes.
The process does not involve the help of a doctor or medication and the 3D-printed capsule allows the user to press the release button for pure nitrogen.
On Monday afternoon, the local public prosecutor’s office was informed by a law firm that an assisted suicide had taken place within the Sarco pod at a forest hut in Merishausen.
In a statement the Last Resort – the group behind the pod – confirmed a 64-year-old woman from the US had died using the device.
The pod was created by Australian doctor Philip Nitschke who assisted with the world’s first legal voluntary euthanasia injection to pass progressive laws.
Dr Florian Willet, co-president of The Last Resort was the sole person present for the death and described the woman’s death as “peaceful, fast and dignified”.
Dr Nitschke said he was “pleased that the Sarco had performed exactly as it had been designed to do: that is to provide an elective, non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person’s choosing”.
Schaffhausen police and several other services were called to the scene and the capsule was then secured.
The body of the person who died was removed from the capsule for an autopsy.
Several people in the Merishausen area were taken into police custody on suspicion of incitement and aiding and abetting suicide.
Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke created the capsule. (Reuters: Denis Balibouse)
The public prosecutor’s office is also investigating the violation of other criminal laws.
“The public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Schaffhausen has opened criminal proceedings against several people for inducement and aiding and abetting suicide… and several people have been placed in police custody,” a statement said.
Dutch newspaper Volkskrant published images of the assisted suicide on its website and reported a 64-year-old woman had taken her own life, making her the first to die by assisted suicide using this method.
The publication also reported that the photographer who had taken the images was detained by police.
The Sarco suicide machine was presented in Zurich in July. (Reuters: Denis Balibouse)
It said Schaffhausen police indicated the photographer was being held at a police station but declined to give a further explanation.
Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive,” according to a government website.
Dr Nitschke, who is behind Exit International, told AP that his organisation had received advice from lawyers in Switzerland that use of the Sarco would be legal in the country.
In July, Swiss newspaper Blick reported that Peter Sticher, a state prosecutor in Schaffhausen, wrote to Exit International’s lawyers saying any operator of the suicide capsule could face criminal proceedings if it was used there — and any conviction could bring up to five years in prison.
Prosecutors in other Swiss regions have also indicated that use of the suicide capsule could lead to prosecution.
Over the summer, a 54-year-old US woman with multiple health ailments had planned to be the first person to use the device, but those plans were abandoned.
ABC/AP