A 64-year-old woman from the Midwestern United States died at approximately 4:01 pm on Monday using the controversial Sarco suicide pod in a forest hut located in the northern canton of Schaffhausen, near the German border, according to local reports. Following the incident, Swiss authorities arrested several individuals.
What is Sarco pod
“Sarco” is short for “sarcophagus”.The pod, also known as Pegasos, has been referred to as a “suicide pod”.
The Sarco pod is a euthanasia device consisting of a 3D-printed detachable capsule mounted on a stand, which contains a canister of liquid nitrogen, allowing the individual to die by suicide through inert gas asphyxiation.
According to an assisted dying organisation, the Sarco, a 3D-printed portable suicide pod was used for the first time in Switzerland. This futuristic capsule, which was initially introduced in 2019 amidst controversy, enables a person to end their life without medical supervision, reported the Independent.
How does the Sarco pod work?
The Sarco capsule, which has sparked discussions surrounding legal and ethical issues in Switzerland, where active euthanasia is prohibited but assisted dying has been legal for many years, is a portable, human-sized pod that replaces the oxygen inside with nitrogen, causing death by hypoxia.
To use the Sarco, the person wishing to die must first pass a psychiatric assessment, climb into the purple capsule, close the lid, and answer automated questions before pressing the button.
The pod’s chamber is filled with nitrogen, which rapidly reduces oxygen levels once a button is pressed from the inside, causing the individual to lose consciousness and pass away within approximately 10 minutes.
The process renders the person unconscious, with death occurring within 10 minutes. An emergency exit button is also available inside the pod. The pod is self-operated by a button on the inside, enabling death without medical supervision.
Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since the 1940s, as long as the person assisting has no direct interest in the death. This has resulted in the country being labeled as a “death tourism” destination by some, according to Reuters.
‘Peaceful, quick and dignified’ death
According to The Guardian, Florian Willet, a German scientist and prominent member of the Last Resort, an organisation affiliated with Exit International, is believed to be the sole witness to the woman’s passing. And in an interview with Blick, a Swiss tabloid, Willet described the woman’s death as “peaceful, quick and dignified.” He mentioned that she had endured a prolonged period of suffering due to various severe health issues related to an autoimmune disorder.
According to Philip Nitschke, an Australian citizen and the creator of the Sarco Pod, the woman experienced “an idyllic, peaceful death in a Swiss forest.” He stated that the capsule had been utilized to provide her with “the death she wanted.” He estimated that she lost consciousness “within two minutes” and passed away after five minutes. “We saw jerky, small twitches of the muscles in her arms, but she was probably already unconscious by then. It looked exactly how we expected it to look,” he told De Volkskrant, The Guardian reported.
The device has faced calls for a ban with opponents of it referring to Article 115 of the Swiss Criminal Code which says that assisting suicide is a crime if done for “selfish” reasons.
“Whoever, from selfish motives, induces another person to commit suicide or aids him in it, shall be confined in the penitentiary for not over five years, or in the prison, provided that the suicide has either been completed or attempted,” the code says.
