NYP – After entering the Sarco suicide pod on Monday, the machine allegedly asked the 64-year-old woman, who has not been publicly named, to press the button that would euthanize.
“If you want to die, press this button,” the machine said, according to the AFP.
The 3D-printed chamber called a Sarco, short for “sarcophagus,” floods its chamber with nitrogen gas, causing the user’s oxygen levels to plummet to deadly levels.
The process knocks out the individual, with death occurring within 10 minutes. The pod comes with an emergency exit button.
The controversial pod, however, has not yet been approved for use, resulting in the arrest of several people over the American woman’s death in a forest cabin in Merishausen, regional police said.
Florian Willet, the co-president of assisted-suicide group Exit International’s Swiss affiliate, the Last Resort, was the only witness to the woman’s death, which he described as “peaceful, fast and dignified,” the organization said.
Exit International director Dr. Philip Nitschke said Tuesday he was “pleased that the Sarco had performed exactly as it had been designed… to provide an elective, non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person’s choosing.”
Switzerland is one of the few countries where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives through assisted suicide, which must not involve a doctor but can include outside help.
The law states that the person must take their life without “external assistance” from a doctor and those who help them to die do not do so for a “self-serving motive.”
But unlike the Netherlands, where Exit International is based, Swiss law still strictly forbids the practice of euthanasia, which is different because it must involve a medical professional such as a doctor.
While signs pointed to the Sarco pod being approved in the country, Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider suggested Monday that the capsule would not gain legal status.
“It does not fulfill the demands of the product safety law, and as such, must not be brought into circulation,” she said, adding, “the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the article on purpose in the chemicals law.”
