A 64-year-old woman from the United States took her own life using a controversial suicide capsule in a Swiss woodland retreat, according to authorities.
The Sarco capsule, which induces death by hypoxia using nitrogen, was used for the first time on Monday near a village close to the German border.
Swiss police reported that several individuals have been arrested in connection with the incident, and criminal proceedings are underway.
What is Sarco Pod?
The Sarco pod, a portable, self-operated device activated by a button inside, has stirred legal and ethical debates in Switzerland.
While assisted dying has been legal in the country for decades, active euthanasia remains illegal.
On the day the capsule was used, Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider stated that the device is “not legal.”
Meanwhile, the assisted dying organization The Last Resort, which introduced the Sarco pod in Zurich, describes the assisted death as “peaceful, fast and dignified.”
