Inside the first suicide in a Sarco-pod: American woman ‘almost immediately pressed the button while lying down and looking at the trees and sky… then lost consciousness within two minutes and died after five minutes’

The first person to use Sarco’s suicide capsule climbed into the device and “almost immediately pressed the button” to commit suicide, its maker claims.

The capsule is designed so that a person inside can press a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, causing hypoxia and death shortly thereafter.

The installation was set up in a forest area near a cabin in Merishausen, northern Switzerland. Through the window of the pod, the 64-year-old American woman could see the trees and sky above her before she died.

“It looked exactly as we expected. I think she lost consciousness within two minutes and she died after five minutes,” Dr. Philip Nitschke, the pod’s inventor, told Dutch media.

“We saw sudden, small contractions and movements of the muscles in her arms, but she was probably already unconscious by then.”

The woman, believed to be a mother of two from the American Midwest, had reportedly suffered from ‘a very serious illness accompanied by severe pain’ and had wanted to die for ‘at least two years’.

After being notified of her death, the police entered the forest, where they found the woman’s lifeless body in the capsule and arrested several people.

Those arrested reportedly include an executive of The Last Resort, the company behind Sarco, two lawyers and a newspaper photographer who took pictures of the capsule.

According to the public prosecutor in the canton of Schaffhausen, the makers of Sarco had been warned not to use the device in the region, but this warning was ignored.

“We warned them in writing,” said prosecutor Peter Sticher. “We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal charges.”

Sticher went to the crime scene on Monday with a “large contingent” of police and forensic teams and revealed that the operation lasted from early evening until around midnight.

“We found the capsule with the lifeless person in it,” he said Look“We have removed the person from the capsule and taken him to the Institute of Forensic Medicine. An autopsy will be performed there today.”

He said the arrests were made so that those present “did not collude with each other or conceal evidence.”

According to the Dutch daily newspaper the people’s newspaperwho followed the case closely, the woman who died in the machine verbally stated to The Last Resort that it was her own wish to end her life.

In the four-minute recording, she reportedly said she had been wishing to die for “at least two years” since she was diagnosed with a “very serious illness.”

According to the company, she had a “suppressed immune system” and was in “severe pain.”

The woman’s two sons “completely agree” that it was her decision to die, according to Volksrant. “They are 100 percent behind me,” she is said to have said.

Fiona Stewart, a director at The Last Resort, said the woman’s sons had confirmed this in written statements to the company.

It is believed the sons were not in Switzerland when their mother died on Monday.

Nitschke announced the news of the pod’s premiere on X, saying, “An idyllic, peaceful death in a Swiss forest, where The Last Resort used the Sarco device to help an American woman get the death she wanted.”

Regarding the subsequent arrests, he said: ‘What the Swiss police failed to mention is that those arrested included the director of The Last Resort, two lawyers who provided legal assistance to TLR and a Dutch journalist!!’

According to the Volkskrant, the police arrested a photographer who wanted to take pictures of the use of the Sarco, but no further details were released.

Schaffhausen police had indicated that the photographer was being held at a police station, but would not provide further explanation.

According to Last Resort, Willet said the woman’s death had been “peaceful, quick and dignified” and had taken place “under a canopy of trees, in a private forest in the canton of Schaffhausen, close to the Swiss-German border.”

Nitschke said the woman’s dying process went “well” and that “as soon as she lay down in the Sarco, she pressed the button almost immediately.

“She really wanted to die. She didn’t say anything anymore,” he said.

In a statement, he added that his device had “done exactly what it was designed to do” and had provided a “peaceful death without drugs, at the time the person wanted it”.

Police, including forensic teams, arrived at the scene after receiving a report from a law firm that euthanasia was being performed using the device.

The Last Resort, which had anticipated an investigation after the device was launched, said it had notified police that the device had been used.

Nitschke and Stewart said the company acted at all times on the advice of their lawyers.

The pods work by replacing air, which is 21 percent oxygen and 79 percent nitrogen, with 100 percent nitrogen.

This causes the occupant to become unconscious and stop breathing. The creators expected this process to take less than ten minutes.

A camera in the capsule records their final moments. The footage is handed over to a coroner.

Nitschke and his colleagues designed Sarco, which is made with a 3D printer, to be free. People only have to pay when their bodies are removed by a funeral director.

The woman who used the device only paid the cost of the nitrogen: 18 Swiss francs, according to Last Resort.

The company wants to make euthanasia almost completely free, costing around £16, while most Swiss clinics typically charge around £10,000.

“The Sarco is free to use,” Stewart said. “We don’t want to make any money off of it.”

The woman still had to pay additional costs, such as cremation, she added.

The device was used on the same day that Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the National Council that she considers the use of the Sarco illegal in Switzerland.

“The Sarco suicide capsule is not legal for two reasons,” Baume-Schneider is reported to have said.

“On the one hand, it does not meet the requirements of the Product Safety Act and therefore should not be put into circulation,” she said.

‘The corresponding use of nitrogen, on the other hand, is not compatible with the article on intentional use in the Substances Act.’

According to a government website, Swiss law allows for assisted suicide, provided the person commits suicide without “external help” and that those helping the person die do not do so for “any selfish motive.”

Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives. There are also several organizations dedicated to helping people commit suicide.

Some Swiss lawmakers find the law unclear and are trying to close so-called legal loopholes.

Nitschke and Stewart, who are married and have long campaigned for the right to die, have said they want Sarco to become an established and accessible euthanasia option.

According to The Last Resort, there are around 120 applicants hoping the machine can end their lives. About a quarter of the people on the waiting list are British.

Among them are a former RAF engineer and his wife, who told the Mail they had signed up to become the first couple to use a double suicide capsule.

Peter and Christine Scott, who have been married for 46 years, made the decision after former nurse Christine, 80, was recently diagnosed with early-stage vascular dementia.

According to The Last Resort, the two-person pod, like the solo pod, will be built using a 3D printer and could be ready for use as early as January.

• UK: For help and support you can call the Samaritans free from a UK phone line, completely anonymously, on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.
• US: If you or someone you know needs help, in the US you can call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline at 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.