Assisted suicide: Sarco inventor defends himself against killing rumours

The Sarco capsule Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Sarco inventor Philip Nitschke has defended himself against rumours that one of his colleagues assisted in the suicide of a woman in Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

“When rumours emerged that the Schaffhausen public prosecutor’s office was investigating suspected intentional homicide, I was horrified,” Nitschke told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper on Wednesday. He said he was perplexed and deeply disturbed by what was happening.

According to Nitschke, there is still no autopsy report available, more than 50 days after the suicide capsule was first used in a forest near Merishausen. Since then, the co-president of the euthanasia organisation The Last Resort, Florian Willet, has been in custody in Schaffhausen and the Sarco capsule has been confiscated.

However, Nitschke does not want to give up. Sarco number two is currently being produced, he said. However, the capsule will not be brought to Switzerland, he added. He first wants a clear decision from the judiciary.

But there are other places where he and his fellow campaigners could take Sarco number two, he said. “For example, to Finland, where, according to our lawyers, there is no specific law prohibiting assisted suicide.”

+ Why liberal Switzerland is opposed to the Sarco suicide capsule

Suicide capsule from the 3D printer

According to Nitschke, another possibility is for people who wish to die to produce the Sarco themselves in a 3D printer, climb inside and press the button. “No country in the world can forbid someone from committing suicide,” he said.

At the end of September, the euthanasia organisation The Last Resort used the suicide capsule for the first time in Switzerland, at a forest hut in Merishausen. The emergency services immediately deployed recovered the capsule and took the deceased, a 64-year-old American woman who had suffered from an immune deficiency for many years, to Zurich for an autopsy.

+ Arrests made over unauthorised use of suicide capsule in Switzerland

Several people were temporarily arrested. The public prosecutor’s office initiated proceedings against them for incitement and aiding and abetting suicide. Willet has since been remanded in custody; the other detainees were released.

In response to an enquiry, the Schaffhausen public prosecutor’s office has only stated that one person is still in custody. It is not providing any further details for reasons of investigative tactics.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].