German euthanasia activist arrested over Nitschke suicide pod death ‘takes his own life’

A euthanasia advocate who used Australian doctor Philip Nitschke’s suicide pod to help a woman die has killed himself just months after being questioned over her death.

A euthanasia advocate who used Australian doctor Philip Nitschke’s suicide pod to help a woman die has killed himself just months after being questioned over her death.

German doctor Florian Willet had a mental breakdown after he was arrested and detained by Swiss police last year after a terminally ill 64-year-old American woman died inside the Sarco sealed capsule.

Dr Willet, director of the Swiss assisted suicide organisation Last Resort, attended her death on September 24 in a forest located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and was later arrested by Swiss authorities over her death.

Dr Nitschke, the founder of pro-euthanasia group Exit International, watched the death at the time via video link which allowed a deadly nitrogen gas to be released inside the capsule at the press of a button.

He said he was due to meet with Dr Willet last month in Switzerland but it did not happen because Dr Willet had taken time off and was away in Germany,

Dr Willet was found dead after reports he took his own life on May 5.

Dr Florian Willet. Picture: X

On the Last Resort’s website is a photo of him with a candle that reads, ‘Vale Florian Willet, 3 August 1977 – 5 May 2025’.

Dr Willet spent months in custody last year and Dr Nitschke said he “came out of prison 10 weeks later a completely different person”.

“He was delusional, he was hallucinating, paranoid and he thought people were pumping gas under the door while we were talking to control his mind,” he told News Corp.

“It was episodic, one minute he would seem normal but then the next minute he would be off and it was clear to me he was seriously unwell”.

A “suicide pod” known as “The Sarco” in its design phase.

Suicide is legal in Switzerland but authorities declared on the day of the woman’s death that use of the pod would be illegal.

Dr Willet was later held in custody and questioned for aiding and abetting suicide of the woman.

Chief public prosecutor Peter Sticher from the Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday condolences were expressed for Dr Willet’s family and the proceedings against him had been discontinued.

Despite this proceedings were continuing against others in relation to the woman’s death.

Dr Nitschke said “ludicrous accusations” were levelled against Dr Willett following the American woman’s death, including that she was strangled.

“I saw the death and he (Dr Willet) watched the death … she was not strangled,” he said.

The deceased doctor’s friend Laura Schiesser, who lives in Basel, Switzerland, issued a statement following his death and said he was left “broken” and a “different person” after he was released from custody by Swiss authorities.

“This kind, positive person had become a fearful, suspicious man who no longer trusted even his closest friends,” she said.

“He lived more and more in his own world, traumatised and lost”.

Dr Philip Nitschke. Picture: Jerad Williams

On Last Resort’s website it states that: “On 23 September 2024, Florian was the only person present for the death of a seriously ill American woman in the 3D-printed Sarco in a forest in Schaffhausen canton in Switzerland.

“From 23 September 2024 until 2 December 2024, Florian was held in pre-trial detention for 70 days by the Schaffhausen prosecutor.

“The prosecution alleged that the Sarco had not worked, and that Florian had strangled the woman instead.

“This allegation has no foundation”.

The website also explained that Dr Willet was “deeply traumatised by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation”.

A psychiatric report following his discharge from incarceration he was suffering from: ‘An acute polymorphic psychotic disorder (F23.0) which is currently subsiding under antipsychotic therapy, and which has developed following the stress of the pre-trial detention and the associated processes’.

Last Resort said the German doctor also ‘fell’ from the third floor of his Zurich apartment early this year and subsequently spent three months undergoing surgery and rehabilitation.

Originally published as German euthanasia activist arrested over Nitschke suicide pod death ‘takes his own life’