Makers of Sarco suicide pod ‘pushed another woman to spend money before she died’
The makers of the Sarco suicide capsule are accused of “manipulating and exploiting” an American woman who wanted to end her life to spend all her money.
Jennifer McLaughlin, 55, traveled to Switzerland in July this year to become the first person to use the capsule, which allows the occupant to press a button and die.
Before her planned death, McLaughlin disappeared and is said to have sought help in her death from another euthanasia organization.
In a letter from McLaughlin, seen by a Swiss newspaper New Zurich newspaperMcLaughlin alleged that the organization’s staff had exploited her.
McLaughlin said she had withdrawn her savings, totaling $40,000, to fly to Switzerland for the procedure when conflicts arose.
Jennifer McLaughlin, 55, traveled to Switzerland in July this year to become the first person to use the capsule that allows the occupant to press a button and die.
The ‘Sarco’ pod, whose creators say the occupant can press a button and cause his own death
It is said that these conflicts occurred between McLaughlin and her handlers from The Last Resort, a subgroup of the euthanasia group Exit International.
According to her letter, these arose from misunderstandings and different expectations of those involved.
She complained that her planned death, which would have been the first in the Sarco pod, had become a “media circus.”
McLaughlin also said the group urged her to spend her money, saying she “wouldn’t need it when I died.”
She said: ‘I felt manipulated and exploited. If I had known that the deeply heartless people who held my fate in their hands were primarily driven by their own media presence and marketing, I would never have put myself through this ordeal.’
The pod’s inventor, controversial euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke, said when McLaughlin returned that her death had been “permanently postponed.”
In a statement published by The Last Resort after her death, she said she had turned to the Pegasos Swiss Association for help with her euthanasia.
McLaughlin was also told that she was no longer allowed to work with Sarco due to psychological problems.
She complained that her planned death, which would have been the first in the Sarco pod, had become a “media circus”
McLaughlin also said the group forced her to spend her money, telling her she “wouldn’t need it anymore when I died.”
Nitschke said in a press release: ‘In the first week of July, it became clear that she could not cope with the path she had chosen to obtain assisted suicide.
‘Ms McLaughlin should never have been assisted to commit suicide. She was a person in dire need of mental health care. That is why she was denied access to Sarco.’
McLaughlin sent an email to her attorney and close friends saying she would undergo a “procedure” to end her life.
The former insurance company employee from Columbus, Georgia, suffered “serious health problems” in 2017, and her attorney said she “never really recovered.”
She spent three months in hospital in 2017, he said. A few years later, she lost her beloved mother, who had stood by her during her ill health.
According to Exit International, the Sarco, short for sarcophagus, is intended to allow the euthanasia patient inside to press a button and die “within seconds.”
The capsule is filled with nitrogen, so that the occupant no longer receives oxygen. This causes the patient to become unconscious before dying.
On Monday, the Sarco-pod was used for the first time on another American woman, aged 64. She is believed to be the first person to die from the device.
Swiss police said several people were arrested on Monday and an investigation was launched into incitement and complicity in suicide.
Prosecutors in the canton of Schaffhausen were informed by a law firm that a euthanasia using the Sarco capsule took place near a forest hut in Merishausen on Monday, police said.
The woman who died in the capsule was reportedly suffering from “a very serious illness accompanied by severe pain” and had been longing for death for “at least two years.”
Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke (pictured), also known as ‘Dr Death’, is a former physician and head of the voluntary euthanasia campaign Exit International
The Last Resort said in a statement: “On Monday, September 23 at approximately 4:01 p.m. CEST, a 64-year-old woman from the Midwest U.S. passed away following use of the Sarco device.”
According to police, the organization’s co-chairman, Florian Willet, was the only one present at the death, contrary to what police claim.
According to the Volkskrant, the police arrested a photographer who wanted to take pictures of the use of the Sarco.
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.”
A look at the Sarco suicide machine, a 3D-printed capsule that gives the user ultimate control over the timing of his/her death
According to the organization, the woman “had been suffering for years from a number of serious problems related to a severely weakened immune system.”
Nitschke said 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.”
The Last Resort, which had anticipated an investigation after the device was launched, said it had notified police that the device had been used.
Officers have seized the Sarco capsule. An autopsy on the deceased will now be performed by the Institute of Legal Medicine Zurich (IRMZ).
If you or someone you know needs help, you can call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline at 988 in the U.S. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.