Tragic past of Sarco suicide capsule president arrested in Switzerland revealed: The childhood trauma that inspired Dr Florian Willet to campaign for the right to die as he is held by police over the device’s first death

Euthanasia activist Dr Florian Willet described the first death in the controversial Sarco-pod on Monday as “peaceful, quick and dignified”.

He is co-chair of The Last Resort, the company set up to manage the capsule. He was reportedly the only one to witness the death of the 64-year-old American woman when she pressed a button to release nitrogen gas into the chamber.

For Willet, it was the culmination of a lifetime of fighting for the right to die. Almost immediately, police arrived and arrested the 47-year-old man. He and several others were taken into custody, where he remains today.

Public prosecutors in the Swiss region of Schaffhausen, where the launch took place, confirmed yesterday that they have “opened criminal proceedings against several individuals for incitement and complicity in suicide.”

The German-born campaigner, who describes himself as an economist and communications psychologist, previously worked as a media spokesperson for euthanasia clinic Dignitas before joining The Last Resort.

When asked in a recent interview what inspired his work, he described contemplating suicide at a young age and dealing with his father’s suicide as a teenager.

Philip Nitschke lies in a ‘suicide capsule’ known as ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam, Netherlands, July 8, 2024

“When I was five, I started thinking about committing suicide,” Willet said in a YouTube interview.

‘And also, then, my father. He committed suicide when I was 14. I was actually fine with it.

“I mean, I was incredibly sad because I loved my father. But I understood right away that my father wanted to do this because he was a rational person, which means that if I expected him to stay alive just because I needed a father, I would be prolonging his suffering.”

“This would be very selfish, this expectation on my part,” he argued. “So I was fine with the situation. I dealt with it as a teenager.”

He said he had been visited by a priest and a psychiatrist, who said his father’s death was “selfish” because he should have stayed alive for his son.

“Keeping my father alive just because I need him as a young person is like working on a farm with horses or animals to get the job done. Abusing a living creature. It’s horrible,” Willet said.

Willet, who said he was raised “completely atheistic,” criticized the “strange morality” he said was created by Christianity and other religions.

He is a member of the Mensa association for people with a high IQ and claims that his ‘logic’ and the importance he places on ’empathy’ have influenced his thinking about the right to die.

Willet, who said he was raised “completely atheistic,” criticized the “strange morality” created by religion

Australian doctor Philip Nitschke (R), founder of the euthanasia organization Exit International, speaks next to Florian Willet, co-chair of the organization Last Resort

In July, when he presented Sarco to the world at a press conference, he told reporters: “I have compared all possible options to die on my own and for me there is no better way than just breathing air without oxygen, until you lose consciousness and fall into an endless sleep.”

The Sarco is designed to have the person inside press a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die of suffocation within a few minutes.

According to Sarco’s inventor, Dr. Philip Nitschke, the launch on Monday went “as expected.” He told Dutch media: “I suspect she lost consciousness within two minutes and died after five minutes.”

Last Resort member Fiona Stewart poses next to Sarco’s suicide machine in July

In July, Willet said Switzerland was “by far the best place” to use the Sarco because of its “wonderful liberal system”.

Swiss law generally allows assisted suicide if the person commits the lethal act themselves.

But Interior Minister Baume-Schneider, answering questions in parliament on Monday, said: “The Sarco suicide capsule does not comply with the law in two ways.

“Firstly, it does not meet the requirements of the Product Safety Act and therefore may not be placed on the market. Secondly, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the target article of the Chemicals Act,” she said.

Fiona Stewart, who sits on The Last Resort’s advisory board along with Willet, said the group acted on legal advice, which “has consistently concluded since 2021 that Sarco’s use in Switzerland would be lawful”.

• For help and support you can call the Samaritans free from a UK phone, completely anonymously, on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org