Criminal case opened after Sarco capsule – which releases nitrogen gas at the touch of a button – used in Merishausen
Swiss police say they have opened a criminal investigation and arrested several people after the suspected death of a woman in a so-called suicide capsule.
According to local reports, the capsule, named the Sarco Pod by its inventor, was used for the first time on Monday afternoon in a forest close to the German border in the Swiss town of Merishausen.
The person who died was reportedly a 64-year-old American woman. Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world where assisted suicide is legal, under certain conditions.
I know from working in healthcare in Germany, that you can get euthanasia as a non Swiss national if you go through the appropriate channels. You don’t even have to live in Switzerland.
But it is for all a legally controlled, very lengthy and detailed process with several independent doctors and psychiatrists having to sign off on it.
My uneducated guess would be, that there are some rules and regulations they haven’t followed exactly. Maybe they thought since the patient has the controll over the button themselves, they wouldn’t be bound by all of them.