A woman almost immediately pressed the button of a suicide pod to end her life in Switzerland, the creator of the controversial invention claimed.
The 64-year-old US woman took her life after the 3D-printed capsule was set up in the woodland of Merishausen, northern Switzerland, on Monday.
The woman, believed to be a mother-of-two from the American mid-west, had reportedly been suffering with “a very serious illness that involves severe pain” and had wished to die for “at least two years”.
“It looked exactly as we expected it to look. My guess is that she lost consciousness within two minutes and that she died after five minutes,” Dr Philip Nitschke, the pod’s inventor, told Dutch newspaper Volkskrant.
“When she entered the Sarco, she almost immediately pressed the button. She didn’t say anything. We saw jerky, small twitches of the muscles in her arms, but she was probably already unconscious by then.”
Swiss police arrested several people shortly after her death, with investigators looking at possible incitement and accessory to suicide.
The public prosecutor in the Schaffhausen canton said that Sarco’s creators had been warned not to use the device in the region, but that the warning had not been heeded.
“We warned them in writing,’ prosecutor Peter Sticher said. “We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.”
Mr Sticher attended the scene with police and forensics teams on Monday, revealing that the operation lasted from early evening until around midnight.
“We found the capsule with the lifeless person inside,” he told Blick. “We took the person out of the capsule and brought them to the Institute of Forensic Medicine. An autopsy will be performed there today.”
He said arrests were made so that those at the scene “were not colluding with each other or covering up evidence.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.