Arrests after Aussie suicide pod designed by Philip Nitschke used for first time in Switzerland

An American woman immediately pressed the button to die once inside the controversial Sarco ‘suicide capsule, says ‘Dr Death’ Philip Nitschke.

Swiss authorities have detained several people who may have been involved in the death of an American woman on Monday after she was the first person to use the controversial suicide capsule called Sarco created by Australian Dr Philip Nitschke.

Those who face charges include a Dutch journalist who was documenting the death of the woman using the capsule which took place on private land in Mirshausen forest in the Schaffhausen region of northern Switzerland.

The Swiss public prosecutor Peter Sticher said he had warned the operators, The Last Resort, in advance and that those detained were being investigated for incitement and aiding and abetting suicide.

“We warned them in writing,’’ Mr Sticher told the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.”

The suicide capsule allows a person inside to push a button, which fills the sealed capsule with nitrogen, causing the person to fall unconscious and then die by suffocation within minutes. Dr Nitschke and his company Exit International, have previously promoted the capsule, which he developed seven years ago, as providing a quick, peaceful and reliable death.

“Once the button is pressed, the amount of oxygen in the air plummets from 21 per cent to 0.05 per cent in less than 30 seconds,” he said.

“Within two breaths of air of that low level of oxygen, they will start to feel disorientated, uncoordinated and slightly euphoric before losing consciousness.”

Dr Nitschke was in Germany watching the death via a monitor and said on social media that it was “an idyllic peaceful death in a Swiss forest where the Last Resort used the Sarco device to help a US woman have the death she wanted.’’

Dr Nitschke told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that the woman had travelled willingly to Switzerland to end her life.

He described to the paper the footage seen from inside the pod: “When she entered the Sarco, she almost immediately pressed the button.

“She didn’t say anything. She really wanted to die. My estimate is that she lost consciousness within two minutes and that she died after five minutes.”

“We saw jerky, small twitches of the muscles in her arms, but she was probably already unconscious by then. It looked exactly how we expected it to look.”

Dr Nitschke said those arrested by the Swiss included the director of The Last Resort, two lawyers providing legal assistance to the Last Resort and a Dutch journalist. The lawyers are believed to have contacted the Swiss authorities and informed them of the woman’s death.

The woman had suffered severe pain from an immune deficiency and had recorded her wish that she had wanted to die for at least two years, Dr Nitschke said.

She had been examined by a psychiatrist before entering the capsule and her family were aware of her decision.

But Switzerland’s interior minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said the Sarco capsule does not comply with Swiss law. She told the Swiss parliament: “Firstly, it does not meet the requirements of product safety law and therefore cannot be placed on the market. Secondly, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the purpose of the chemicals act.’’