“Idyllic death in the forest”: in Switzerland, the police investigate the suicide of a woman with the help of a special capsule – News

In Switzerland, a 64-year-old woman committed suicide using a suicide capsule

ARND WIEGMANN/AFP/Getty Images

In Switzerland, a 64-year-old American woman used a suicide capsule for the first time. She suffered from an autoimmune disease.

Several people were detained for helping to commit suicide, it is reported The New York Times and The Guardian.

It happened on September 23 in a remote forest in the canton of Schaffhausen, located in northern Switzerland near the border with Germany.

The woman used a sealed Sarco capsule the size of a coffin. It has an internal button that replaces the oxygen inside with nitrogen, which kills a person in minutes.

People from two groups that support the “right to die” helped the woman to commit suicide.

According to Philip Nitschke, the inventor of the device and founder of the assisted suicide group Exit International, this was the first time the capsule had been used. He also reported that the woman had been suffering from an autoimmune disease for years.

“I watched the first use of the device from Germany (via video link – ed.) and was pleased with the peaceful, quick death that followed the push of a button.” Nitschke said.

He also called the woman’s suicide “an idyllic peaceful death in a Swiss forest.”

“We saw sharp, small muscle twitches in her arms, but by then she must have been unconscious. It looked exactly as we expected.” Nitschke said.

Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world where assisted suicide is legal. However, provided that the person ended his life without “external intervention”, and those who help him die, do not do it for “selfish motives”.

In a statement, the Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider questioned the moral and legal status of the Sarco capsule.

Police in the canton of Schaffhausen have arrested “several people” who allegedly helped the woman die. Among those detained are two lawyers, a photographer for the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant and Florian Willet, director of the assisted suicide group Last Resort.

However, Nitschke claims that Willet is the only person who was present at the woman’s death. It was he who contacted two lawyers who informed the law enforcement officers about her death.

The detainees are accused of “inciting and aiding suicide.”

At the same time, it is noted that before entering the capsule, the woman made a statement to lawyer Fiona Stewart from Last Resort. She allegedly confirmed that it was her own wish and that her two sons supported her in this.

According to Stewart, the American had previously been examined by a psychiatrist, who found her to be mentally healthy.

We will remind, in Britain exposed a site that connects people for couple suicide.