Switzerland launches probe into use of ‘suicide capsule’
Police in Switzerland made several arrests after reports of a man taking his own life using a so-called suicide pod, apparently the first of its kind.
Police in the Schaffhausen region said they had arrested several people on suspicion of aiding and abetting suicide after someone was reported to have died using a pod made of sarco on Monday. Officers recovered the device and body from the scene.
The company behind the controversial pod says it can only be operated by a person trying to end their own life without medical supervision.
It was used on Monday in a forest hut in Merieshausen, a sparsely populated part of Switzerland on the German border, police said. Police said they received a tip-off from a law firm about a suicide involving the device. The number of people arrested and their identities have not been disclosed. The deceased has also not been named.
In July, an assisted dying group promoting the Sarco device said it was expected to be used for the first time this year. Advocates say it provides an alternative that doesn’t rely on drugs or doctors, and because the portable device can be 3D printed and assembled at home, it expands access to euthanasia.
Assisted dying is illegal in the UK and many other European countries, but thousands have traveled to Switzerland over the years to end their own lives.
