Sarco suicide pod is used for the first time as US woman, 64, uses the capsule to die in Swiss woodland - prompting police to swoop and detain staff

Daily Mail UK ^ | September 24, 2024 | Elena Salvoni

[Red Badger]

The Sarco suicide pod has been used for the first time, its creators have confirmed, with an American woman aged 64 believed to be the first person to have died in the device 'under a canopy of trees' in Switzerland.

Police in northern Switzerland said that several people were detained on Monday, and that prosecutors had opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.

The 'Sarco' suicide capsule is designed to allow a person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, according to its creators. The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes.

Prosecutors in Schaffhausen canton were informed by a law firm that an assisted suicide involving use of the Sarco capsule had taken place Monday near a woodland cabin in Merishausen, police said.

The woman who died in the capsule had reportedly been suffering with 'a very serious illness that involves severe pain' and had wished to die for 'at least two years'.

The Last Resort, the Swiss firm behind the Sarco, said in a statement: 'On Monday 23 September, at approximately 16.01 CEST, a 64-year old woman from the the mid-west in the USA died using the Sarco device.'

It said the co-president of the organisation, Florian Willet, was the sole person present for the death, contrary to police reports.

Dutch newspaper Volkskrant has reported that police detained one of its photographers who wanted to take pictures of the use of the Sarco.

[Sirius Lee]

Ha! You beat me. I just posted similar as post #20 on the similar thread here https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4266890/posts.

Great minds...

Or are they?

Nah, they are.

[T.B. Yoits]

Matt Groening had some poignant themes in Futurama. The suicide booth episode had multiple levels - Fry, being from the past, thought it was a phone booth. He didn't have any money but Bender (the robot who wanted to die) sprung for the two of them but ended up saving both their lives.

If I recall, it was a later episode but a flashback to when Fry first woke up in the future, showing a potential horrific "came through all that only to accidentally take his own life".

[Sirius Lee]

It was a great series. The characters of which were allowed to come to the conclusion of their logical (albeit sappy) arc.

Billy West. Genius.

[Ikeon]

Personally, I’ll ask for a ketamine dose and see if I still want to die when my Brain has been set free for 1/2 an hour. My reference is I got it once for a colonscopy.

[Slicksadick]

Guessing Trigeminal neuralgia. Brutal disease.

[Zhang Fei]

[Matt Groening had some poignant themes in Futurama.]

---

The guy came of age in some left wing opinion rag. Gotta be impressed at how far he’s come, between Futurama and the Simpsons. He’s still a radical leftist.

[EinNYC]

That’s how they kill hogs at slaughtering. The hogs go unconscious on a conveyor, where they are then hoisted up with a chain around the back legs, then the throat is cut so they bleed out.

But Hampshire breed hogs seem to have a resistance to the gas and wildly protest and vocalize. How do they deal with those?

[blackdog]

Heck, I dunno? They go unconscious and then bleed out.

Once in a while some would get loose going into the conveyor chute by standing on another hog and jumping, but I never looked at breeds. The lots going thru went by weight mostly. Those big monster 800 pound hogs for fat, or down to the lean 250 pound one year Olds.

[Manic_Episode]

Kevorkian was apparently just ahead of his time.