Its first use ends with one person dead and several arrested in Switzerland

Sarcothe controversy capsule A futuristic-looking device designed to allow its occupant to commit suicide was used for the first time without permission in Switzerland on Tuesday. A woman has died by suffocation and Several people have been arrestedThe device has revived the debate on euthanasia in the Swiss country, where Assisted suicide is legal but not euthanasia.

Police in the canton of Schaffhausen, near the border with Germany, learned that the ‘suicide capsule’ was deployed on Monday evening in a forest area in the municipality of Merishausen. After arriving at the scene, the officers proceeded to arrest of several people allegedly involved on the first use of ‘Sarco’. They face sentences of up to 5 years in prison.

The prosecutor of the jurisdiction has opened a criminal case against the detainees for inciting and assisting suicide, while the capsule has been seized and the body of the deceased was transferred to the morgue.

The Swiss newspaper Blick has learned that the first user of the capsule was a 64-year-old American citizen who for several years had suffered from acute health problems related to a severe immunodeficiency.

Press a button to die

To use the capsule – called Sarco (short for sarcophagus) – the person who wants to die press a button that releases a large amount of nitrogen and replaces oxygen, causing rapid loss of consciousness and death in about five minutes.

The euthanasia device, invented seven years ago by Philip Nitschkean Australian doctor famous for his activism in favor of euthanasiais a receptacle with elegant aerodynamic lines and a transparent cover in which the person who wishes to die is enclosed. According to its inventor, Death is “pleasant” and occurs without pain.

To promote this device, the organization was established a few months ago The Last Resortfunded by private donations and which has argued that Their goal is human and not to make money with the capsulefor whose use it has been indicated that I would only charge 20 euroswhich is the cost of the liquid nitrogen used.

The private company now faces legal consequences for taking the first step, as some cantons, including Schaffhausen, had warned that they would open criminal proceedings if the capsule was used on their territory.

For it to proceed there are conditions, such as the person showing capacity for discernmentthat her idea has been well thought out and not the product of an impulse, that no one exercises undue influence over her and that she is evaluated by specialists to confirm that she is suffering from serious suffering.

Intense debate in Switzerland

Switzerland, a country that tolerates euthanasia and where people from other countries travel to undergo assisted suicide, has experienced in recent weeks an intense debate on the issue because of the new level that this practice could reach if the use of Sarco was finally allowed.

The controversial capsule has also sparked debate among authorities over whether they would allow it. Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said Monday that the capsule did not meet product safety criteria and could not be marketed, and that The use of nitrogen in a capsule was not compatible with the law on chemicals.

Swiss law differentiates between “euthanasia” (this one is prohibited by law) and “assisted suicide”in the sense that the patient has to play an active role at the time it is carried out: for example, he must be the one who, with his own hands, takes a lethal dose of the barbiturates normally administered in Switzerland for these cases.

Unas 1.600 personas recurren al suicidio asistido al año en el paíos helvético, en su mayoría por padecer enfermedades incurables y dolorosas. Entre ellos figura el célebre director de cine francés Jean-Luc Godard, quien en 2022 falleció por suicidio asistido en Rolle, una localidad a orillas del lago Lemán y a unos 35 kilómetros de Ginebra, con 91 años y sufriendo de diversas patologías incapacitantes.