The man behind the so-called “suicide pod” has spoken out, rejecting allegations that the U.S. woman who was the first to die using the device may have actually been strangled.
Dr. Philip Nitschke, a right-to-die advocate with Exit International and trained medical doctor, said Wednesday that while he didn’t attend the woman’s death on Sept. 23 in Switzerland, he did watch it live by video transmission.
The device worked as planned, he said, in the first and only time it has been used.
The “Sarco” pod (short for sarcophagus) has been in the works for years, but up until September had never been used.
The news of the capsule’s use for the first time made headlines around the world in September, when several people were arrested and a criminal case opened up in connection with its use.
The head of a Swiss affiliate of Exit International known as The Last Resort, Florian Willet, was present at the woman’s death and was immediately taken into police custody, where he remains as police investigate the circumstances around the woman’s death.
Others initially taken into custody, including a journalist for the Volkskrant newspaper in the Netherlands, where Nitschke lives, were later released.
In an interview this week with Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Nitschke said he felt compelled to speak out and help Willet’s plight.
He told the outlet that the woman who died suffered with “a very serious illness that involves severe pain” and had wished to die for “at least two years.”
Nitschke said the woman chose a woodland location for her death and “almost immediately pressed the button” to end her own life after entering the pod.
On Oct. 26, Volkskrant reported the Swiss prosecutor had indicated in court that the woman may have been strangled. The Volkskrant article last month said one of its photographers, two lawyers and Willet were originally detained on suspicion of inciting suicide and providing assistance in doing so.
“It is absurd because we’ve got film that the capsule wasn’t opened,” Nitschke said. “Everything happened exactly as we had predicted. The woman climbed into the Sarco alone, closed the lid without help and pressed the button that released the nitrogen herself. She lost consciousness and died after about six minutes.”
He added that Willet held a mobile phone through which Nitschke watched live video of the woman using the Sarco, and informed the police immediately afterward that she had died.
Nitschke recalled speaking to Willet through the phone at the time, saying: “I was listening and answering his questions and calming him down because it was a very tense time for him.”
The Sarco pods allow a person to control their death inside the capsule by quickly reducing internal oxygen levels. The person intending to end their life is required to answer a set of pre-recorded questions, then press a button that floods the interior with nitrogen. The oxygen level inside is quickly reduced from 21 per cent to one per cent, and the person is supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a matter of minutes.
After death, the pod can be used as a coffin, although in this case the capsule was confiscated by Swiss police.
Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive,” according to a government website.
Currently, assisted suicide in Switzerland means swallowing a capsule filled with a cocktail of controlled substances that puts the person into a deep coma before they die.
— with files from The Associated Press
If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911 for immediate help.
For immediate mental health support, call 988. For a directory of support services in your area, visit the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention at suicideprevention.ca.
Learn more about preventing suicide with these warning signs and tips on how to help.