The first person to use Sarco’s death pod entered the device and ‘almost immediately pressed a button’ to commit suicide, the creators said.
The capsule is designed to allow the person inside to press a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, causing hypoxia and subsequent death.
It was erected in a forest near a cabin in Merishausen, northern Switzerland, with a pod window allowing the 64-year-old American woman to see the trees and the sky above her before she died.
‘It looks exactly as expected. I guess he lost consciousness in two minutes and he died after five minutes,” Dr. Philip Nitschke, the inventor of the pod, told Dutch media.
‘We saw sudden, small contractions and muscle movements in his arms, but he was probably unconscious by then.’
The woman, who is believed to be a midwestern American mother of two, is reported to have been suffering from a very serious illness that has left her in severe pain and wanting to die for at least two years.
After being informed that she was dead, the police raided the forest, where they found the lifeless body of a woman inside a pod and arrested several people.
Those arrested included the director of The Last Resort, the company behind Sarco, as well as two lawyers and the newspaper photographer who took the pod’s pictures.
The first use of the Sarco capsule took place in the middle of the forest, according to the device’s creator
Sarco inventor Philip Nitschke is pictured at a press conference in Zurich on July 17
Philip Nitschke sleeps in the ‘suicide pod’ known as ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 8 July 2024
The ‘Sarco’ pod, which its creators say allows its occupants to push a button and cause their own death.
The public prosecutor in the canton of Schaffhausen said that the creators of Sarco had been warned not to use the device in the area, but that the warning had been ignored.
‘We warned in writing,’ prosecutor Peter Sticher said. ‘We said that if he comes to Schaffhausen and uses Sarco, he will face criminal consequences.’
Sticher attended the scene with a ‘large contingent’ of police and forensics teams on Monday, announcing the operation would last from late afternoon to midnight.
“We found a capsule with a lifeless person,” Blick said. “We took the man out of the capsule and took him to the Institute of Forensic Medicine. An autopsy will be performed there today.’
He said the arrests were made so that those involved in ‘not colluding with each other or covering up evidence.’
According to the Dutch daily newspaper de Volksrant, which has been following the case, the woman who died in the machine made a verbal statement to The Last Resort saying that she wanted to end her life.
In the four-minute recording, he reportedly said he wanted to die ‘for at least two years,’ since he was diagnosed with a “very serious illness”.
The company says they are ‘compromised immunity’ and are in serious pain.
The two girls’ sons were ‘very much in agreement’ that they had decided to die, according to the Volksrant. ‘He’s behind me 100 per cent,’ he reportedly said.
Fiona Stewart, a member of Last Resort poses next to a Sarco machine in July
A look at Sarco’s suicide machine, a 3D-printed capsule that gives users ultimate control over when they die.
Fiona Stewart, a board member at The Last Resort, said the woman’s son had confirmed this in a written statement to the company.
The children are not believed to have been in Switzerland when their mother died on Monday.
Nitschke, announced the news of the pod which premiered in X, said: ‘Idyllic peaceful death in the Swiss forest where The Last Resort used the Sarco device to help a US woman have the death she wanted.’
He added about the arrests: ‘What the Swiss police didn’t tell us was that those arrested included the Director of The Last Resort, two lawyers providing legal assistance to TLR, and a Dutch journalist!!’
The Volkskrant reported that police detained one photographer who wanted to take pictures of Sarco’s use, but gave no further details.
Schaffhausen police said they had indicated the photographer was being held at the police station but refused to give further explanations.
According to Last Resort, Willet said the death of a woman who had been ‘peaceful, quick and dignified’, took place ‘in the canopy of trees, in a private forest retreat in the Canton of Schaffhausen near the Swiss-German border.’
Nitschke said the woman’s dying process went ‘well’ and ‘after she laid down on Sarco, she almost immediately hit the button.
‘He really wanted to die. He didn’t say anything anymore,” he said.
He added in a statement that the device ‘has performed exactly as designed,’ saying the device provides ‘narcotic-free and peaceful death at the chosen time’.
Police, including a forensics team, arrived at the scene after being alerted by a law firm that there had been an assisted suicide with the device.
The Last Resort, which has been anticipated to be investigated after the launch of the device, said it has informed the police that it has been used.
Nitschke and Stewart said the company always acts on the advice of its attorneys.
The pods can replace air, which is 21 percent oxygen and 79 percent nitrogen, with 100 percent nitrogen.
This renders the occupant unconscious and then stops breathing in a process that the creators hope takes less than ten minutes.
Philip Nitschke, front, stands next to a ‘suicide pod’ called ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, July 8, 2024
A camera inside the pod recorded the final moments and the footage was sent to the coroner.
Nitschke and his colleagues designed the Sarco, which was made using a 3-D printer, to be free, with people simply paying for the body to be removed by a funeral director.
The woman who uses the device pays only the cost of nitrogen: 18 Swiss francs, according to Last Resort.
The company aims to make assisted dying almost free, costing the equivalent of around £16, in contrast to Swiss clinics, which typically charge around £10,000.
“Using Sarco is free,” Stewart said. ‘We don’t want to make money from this.’
The woman will have to pay additional costs, such as cremation, he added.
The display shows the login screen and release button for pure nitrogen in the Sarco vacuum cleaner
Display 02 detector and release button for pure nitrogen in Sarco lampas machine
The device was used on the same day that Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the National Council that she considered the use of Sarco in Switzerland to be illegal.
“The Sarco suicide capsule is invalid on two counts,” Baume-Schneider said.
“On the one hand, it does not meet the requirements of the product safety law, and therefore, it should not be put into circulation,” he said.
‘On the other hand, the appropriate use of nitrogen does not correspond to articles with a purpose in chemical law.’
Swiss law allows assisted suicide as long as the person commits suicide without ‘external assistance’ and those helping the person die do not do so for ‘selfish motives,’ according to the government website.
Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world where foreigners can travel to end their lives legally, and is home to several organizations dedicated to helping people take their own lives.
Peter and Christine Scott told the Mail this week that they had decided to end their lives at the same time
Some lawmakers in Switzerland have argued that the law is unclear and are seeking to close what they call legal loopholes.
Nitschke and Stewart, who are married and have long campaigned for the right to die, have said that they want Sarco to be a stable and accessible option for euthanasia.
About 120 applicants hope to use the machine to end their lives, according to The Last Resort, with around a quarter of those on the waiting list said to be British.
Among them is a former RAF engineer and his wife, who revealed to the Mail that they signed up to become the first couple to use a double pod.
Peter and Christine Scott, who have been married for 46 years, made the decision after former nurse Christine, 80, was recently diagnosed with early stage vascular dementia.
Like the solo pod, The Last Resort says the two-person pod will be built using a 3D printer, and will be operational from early January.
- UK: For help and support, call the Samaritans free of charge from a UK phone, anonymously, on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.
- US: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the US is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
