Switzerland: Police investigate 1st use of 'suicide capsule'

Police in the northern Swiss canton of Schaffhausen said on Tuesday that several people had been detained, and a dead body taken for examination, following the apparent first use of a capsule designed to help people end their lives. 

The "Sarco" capsule, made in the Netherlands and in development for several years now, is supposed to allow a person reclining inside to press a button, after which most of the oxygen in the sealed chamber is replaced with nitrogen. 

According to the group that promotes its use, Exit International, this triggers first mild disorientation and euphoria, then unconsciousness, and in a few minutes death by asphyxiation.

What did police say about the case? 

"The Schaffhausen canton's public prosecutor's office was informed at 16:40 on Monday, September 23, that an assisted suicide using the Sarco capsule had taken place at a forest cabin in Merishausen that afternoon," police said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Police said that officers, as well as crime scene technicians and prosecutors — along with specialists from the Zurich Forensics Institute and the Zurich Institute of Forensic Medicine (IRMZ) — went to investigate the scene. 

"The Sarco suicide capsule was secured and the deceased person was taken to the IRMZ for autopsy," police said. "In addition, several people in the Merishausen area were placed in police custody. Prosecutors are also examining other potential criminal acts." 

The de Volkskrant newspaper in the Netherlands, which published a feature on the death early on Tuesday, said that one of its photographers who had taken pictures of the capsule was detained.

What did the device's operators say? 

The organization behind the Sarco capsule, known globally as Exit International but operating under the name The Last Resort for its service in Switzerland, said that the death took place just after 4 p.m. on Monday.

It identified the person who used the device only as "a 64-year-old woman from the Midwest in the USA" who "had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise."

It said the death took place in the open air under a canopy of trees in a private forest retreat near the German border with the association's co-president, Dr. Florian Willet, the sole person present. 

It quoted the capsule's inventor, Dr. Philip Nitschke, as saying 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."

The statement also seemed to indicate the group might be anticipating legal problems, namely by concluding as follows: 

"The Last Resort Advisory Board member and lawyer Dr Fiona Stewart has said that The Last Resort was acting at all times on the legal advice of their lawyers. Legal advice since 2021 has consistently found that the use of Sarco in Switzerland would be lawful."

Assisted dying legal in some circumstances in Switzerland

Swiss law allows for assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no "external assistance" and those who help the person do not do so for "any self-serving motive," according to a government website. 

Unlike some other countries, including the Netherlands and Spain, Switzerland does not allow euthanasia, which involves health care practitioners killing patients with a lethal injection at their request in specific circumstances. 

Switzerland is also unusual in that it allows people from other countries to travel there to end their lives, and is home to a number of organizations trying to provide this for visitors, with Dignitas probably the best known among them. 

Exit International says its method will reduce costs for people coming from abroad, who typically pay enough to cover the costs, usually a sum approaching €10,000 ($11,185).

The 3D-printed capsule using common gases to end a person's life is far cheaper to use.

It can be only be used following a pyschiatric evaluation of the subject.

People who get inside are met with a series of questions on their identity, where they are, and in the end, on whether they understand what happens if they press the button to remove oxygen and insert nitrogen. On displaying cogency and an understanding of the stakes, it becomes possible push the button to activate the process, which cannot then be aborted.

Prior delays amid legal questions

Swiss newspaper Blick had reported in July this year that a state prosecutor in Schaffhausen had written to Exit International's lawyers saying any operator of the suicide capsule could face criminal proceedings, and up to five years in prison, if it was used there. 

Prosecutors in other Swiss regions have made similar indications. 

Earlier plans for a 54-year-old woman, again from the US, to use the Sarco capsule this summer were abandoned.

Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider was asked specifically about the Sarco capsule in parliament on Monday, and said its use would not be legal on two grounds: one that it did not meet product safety standards, and the other being the use of nitrogen for the task being incompatible with chemicals law.

msh/nm (AFP, AP)

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