He said he had tested his pod several times in advance, even lying in it for five minutes this spring with an oxygen mask on his face, while it was filled with nitrogen.
He told De Volkskrant his invention was a more elegant version of “using gas and a bag over [one’s] head”, adding it was more akin to passengers being starved of oxygen when cabin pressure drops in an aeroplane.
“We know from people who have survived that it doesn’t feel like suffocation,” he is cited as saying. “People just keep breathing. After half a minute they start to feel disoriented.
“They don’t really notice what’s happening to them. Some experience mild euphoria. Then they just drift off.”
According to Last Resort, the woman only paid the 18 Swiss francs (£16) charge for the nitrogen.
“The use of the Sarco is free,” said Ms Stewart. ”We don’t want to make any money from this.” The woman did have to pay additional costs, such as her cremation, she said, adding that other legal assisted dying organisations charge thousands to dispose of the body.
Objections by Dignitas
However, other Swiss assisted-dying organisations have expressed opposition to the Sarco.
Dignitas told the SWI news site that professional medical suicide assistance must be carried out by “trained staff and that every accompanied suicide is checked by the authorities (public prosecutor’s office, police and medical officer)”.
“In light of this legally secured, established and proven practice, we cannot imagine that a technologised capsule for a self-determined end of life will meet much acceptance or interest in Switzerland,” it said.
According to Erika Preisig, a doctor and president of the Basel-based organisation Lifecircle, medical intervention also serves as a “gatekeeper” to prevent unnecessary suicides.
“I fear that people without sufficient information about alternatives to suicide and who have not thought their death wish through carefully will be unscrupulously helped to die,” she told SWI.
The Swiss organisations also describe Sarco as inhumane, because the person has to die “alone” in a closed capsule, separated from their relatives.
Dr Nitschke is seeking the Sarco pod’s use elsewhere. He recently wrote to Liam McArthur, the MSP seeking to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland, urging him to introduce the device.