A US woman becomes first person to end life using ‘suicide pod,’ several arrested

This week, a 64-year-old American woman became the first person to take her own life in Switzerland using the contentious “suicide pod.” Shortly after, according to the BBC, a number of people were taken into custody on suspicion of encouraging and helping suicide. The anonymous American woman took her own life in Switzerland on Monday by using the Sarco, a portable, 3D-printed chamber. The controversial “Sarco,” short for “sarcophagus,” is a suicide pod that allows its inhabitant to end their own life with a single push of a button.

The pod, according to police, was used on Monday at a wooded retreat in the Merishausen area, which is close to the border between Germany and Switzerland. A law company tipped off the police about the use of the Sarco. Switzerland has long permitted assisted death but not active euthanasia. It is, nevertheless, highly regulated, and the suicide pod has brought up a number of moral and legal issues. A button on the inside of the pod can be used to end a person’s life without a doctor’s oversight.

The Sarco pod was introduced in July in Zurich by the assisted dying organization Last Resort. The group stated that they anticipated using the device for the first time in the coming months and that there would be no legal barriers to its usage in Switzerland. The Last Resort said in a statement to AFP that the deceased was a midwestern American woman, 64 years old, who was not identified.

The woman “had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise” , according to the statement. The statement also stated that she passed away “in open air, under a canopy of trees, at a private forest retreat,” characterizing it as “peaceful, fast, and dignified.” The authorities have “opened criminal proceedings against several people for inducement and aiding and abetting suicide… and several people have been placed in police custody,” according to a police statement.