The “Sarco” capsule was used for the first time on Monday in northern Switzerland by a 64-year-old American woman who, suffering from a “severe immune attack”, killed herself, provoking an international outcry. However, local Swiss authorities had warned the association behind the operation in July of criminal consequences if this controversial device was used.
The device is reminiscent of the sleep capsules from the “Alien” saga, except that the sleep offered by the “Sarco” capsule is eternal.
The machine, owned by the association The Last Resort, was used for the first time by an American woman on Monday, September 23, in a forest in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen. An event that immediately created controversy and led to several arrests, the Swiss authorities considering this device – causing death by massive inhalation of nitrogen – to be illegal.
Florian Willet, the association’s co-president, was the “only person present” when the American woman from the Midwest died, who suffered from a “severe immune deficiency.” He described her passing as “peaceful, quick and dignified.”
“A peaceful and idyllic death in a Swiss forest,” Philip Nitschke, an Australian doctor and pro-euthanasia activist who created the “Sarco” capsule, also commented on X on Tuesday, believing that the device had helped “an American woman have the death she wanted.”
But the Swiss authorities do not see it that way, even though assisted suicide is possible in the Swiss Confederation – under very specific conditions. The case, which is making headlines in local newspapers and has international resonance, promises a lively legal and political debate.
Four people present arrested
Mid-length blond hair, black trousers and a boucle jacket. In the photograph, taken by a journalist from the Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant, the sixty-year-old is standing in front of the open “sarcophagus” cabin ready to welcome her.
According to The Last Resort, she then lay down and answered a series of questions to confirm she understood what she was doing, before herself pressing a button that released nitrogen. With the gas replacing the oxygen in the capsule, the subject loses consciousness after a few breaths and dies within minutes.
Alerted on Monday of the use of this cabin, the cantonal authorities intervened and found the lifeless body of the American. Four people present at the scene, including the Dutch photographer, were arrested.
“These people are in custody, we will question them, collect more evidence and the results of the autopsy, and continue the investigations into this capsule,” Peter Sticher, chief prosecutor of the canton of Schaffhausen, explained on Tuesday to Swiss radio and television (RTS). “We are only at the beginning.”
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In the Swiss daily Blickthe prosecutor explains that he was informed of the death by a call from a lawyer. He also states that in the event of an “exceptional death”, the police and the prosecutor are required to travel.
“We found the capsule with the unconscious person inside. We removed the person from the capsule and transferred him to the Institute of Forensic Medicine,” explained the magistrate, who added that the procedure differs from other assisted suicides.
“So far, we have only had cases from Exit (an association for the right to die with dignity, editor’s note) in the canton of Schaffhausen. We are informed, we propose a legal inspector. We do not need the institute of legal medicine and the forensic service.”
“Anyone who, driven by a selfish motive, incites a person to suicide, or assists them in committing suicide, shall, if the suicide has been completed or attempted, be punished by a custodial sentence of up to five years or by a financial penalty.”
Article 115 of the Swiss Penal Code
Also read: Legislating on the end of life in France: what is the rest of Europe doing?
In the case of the “Sarco” device, the authorities say they do not know the functioning and intentions – particularly financial and ideological – of the association. A criminal investigation has therefore been opened for “incitement and assistance to suicide”.
According to the comments of the chief prosecutor of Schaffhausen reported by RTS, the investigation should provide clarity and the beginnings of a first case law on this very controversial method of suicide by nitrogen.
Already in July, the threat of criminal prosecution
This has in fact raised serious concerns in Switzerland since July. The Zurich daily NZZ am Sonntag had then revealed that the suicide assistance capsule could be used for the first time on Swiss soil.
For its part, The Last Resort had affirmed, at a press conference given on July 17that this method, which allows people to die without the help of a doctor, could be used “very soon”.
The Schaffhausen public prosecutor’s office had also already raised objections. Public prosecutor Peter Sticher told Blick that the association – founded a few months ago and financed by private donations – had been warned. “We warned them in writing. We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.”
By coincidence, just two hours before the incident, during questions to the National Council – the lower house of the Swiss Federal Assembly – a member of parliament had questioned the Minister of Health, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, on the legality of such a device. The latter’s response: “The use of the capsule is illegal in Switzerland for two reasons: it does not meet the requirements of the product safety law and therefore cannot be placed on the market. Furthermore, using nitrogen in this way is not compatible with the Chemicals Act.”
On its website, The Last Resort nevertheless assures that “the use of Sarco is governed by Swiss law”. The investigation, which has just begun, should decide the future of Sarco in Switzerland. An affair that rekindles the debate on the end of life, well beyond the borders of the Confederation.
Early September, in an interview with the Daily MailPeter Scott, 86, and his wife Christine Scott, 80, who has vascular dementia, revealed their plans to travel to Switzerland to die in each other’s arms in a Sarco body capsule when a double version is developed – something Philip Nitschke has already planned.
A project that they wanted to make public in order to give weight to the campaign to authorize assisted suicide in the United Kingdom, where it is currently illegal.
Labour MP plans to present a bill on the end of life after Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed a free vote in the House of Commons on the issue.
In France, where Loïc Résibois, who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease and campaigned for assisted suicide, died on Tuesday after receiving deep sedation, the examination of the bill on the end of life – a campaign promise by Emmanuel Macron – was brought to a halt with the dissolution of the National Assembly.
Also read: “Aided death”: what conditions and restrictions does the bill provide for?
