- AI research uncovers 300 ancient etchings in Peru's Nazca desert
- Brazil's Lula calls Security Council makeup 'unacceptable'
- Carey blasts Australia to 304-7 against England in 3rd ODI
- Biden warns against clinging to power in UN farewell
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon
- Biden warns at UN against 'full-scale war' over Lebanon
- 'Monumental step' as Thai king signs same-sex marriage into law
- French lake still riddled with bombs 80 years after World War II
- Alberta Ferretti quits as creative director at brand she founded
- Two killed in Mexico as Hurricane John weakens to tropical storm
- Multiple arrests after US woman uses machine-assisted suicide in Switzerland
- Dubois will next fight Joshua or Usyk, 'whoever pays me the most'
- Lopetegui ready to learn from mistakes as Liverpool loom in League Cup
- US Fed dissenter warns inflation risks remain 'prominent'
- UN chief warns Lebanon on 'brink' as world leaders gather
- Surprise start for Libbok as Etzebeth set for Springboks record
- Ten Hag says expanded schedules make injuries 'almost unavoidable'
- Liverpool boss Slot praises Alexander-Arnold's defensive work
- Barca coach backs Pena but will debate new goalkeeper signing
- UN says tens of thousands flee Lebanon strikes
- Arteta stands by defensive tactics in fiery Man City clash
- UK town catches Subbuteo fever
- France facing 'one of worst deficits' in its history: minister
- China's Olympic champ Zheng embraces big home expectations
- All Blacks seek to end Wellington jinx, with Cane poised for 100th cap
- Postbank (Постбанк) анулює рахунки українців у Німеччині
- Postbank (Постбанк) анулює рахунки українців у Німеччині
- Meryl Streep says a 'squirrel has more rights' than an Afghan girl
- Postbank terminates accounts of Ukrainians in Germany
- Dutch paint giant Akzonobel slashes 2,000 jobs worldwide
- Sri Lanka's new leader to call snap parliamentary polls
- In Ukraine's Pokrovsk, some quietly waiting for Russian troops
- Fishy business caught by fraying India-Bangladesh ties
- US Open champion Sabalenka chases year-end number one ranking
- New Zealand scientists discover ghostly 'spookfish'
- Trump slams early voting, even while urging Pennsylvanians to do so
- Major Hurricane John hits Mexico's Pacific coast
- IMF says ready for talks with Sri Lanka's new leftist government
- Phillies clinch division title, eye top seed
- Bills trample Jaguars, Commanders claw Bengals
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally on China stimulus on mixed day for markets
- Back to death row? Retrial verdict due in Japan murder saga
- Rare corruption trial of Singapore ex-minister begins
- Ghana a long way off from gender equality despite new law
- China unveils fresh stimulus to boost economy
- Hamas weakened, not crushed a year into war with Israel
- Israeli economy struggles under weight of Gaza war
- Israelis united in trauma, divided by war after October 7
- New York Liberty riding WNBA boom into playoffs
- Environmental groups urge EU 'high risk' label for Sarawak
CMSC | -0.08% | 25.05 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.16% | 60.1 | $ | |
SCS | 0.08% | 13.02 | $ | |
BCC | -0.49% | 140.965 | $ | |
BTI | 0.49% | 38.085 | $ | |
AZN | -0.14% | 77.03 | $ | |
NGG | -0.11% | 70.4 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.22% | 24.95 | $ | |
GSK | 0.26% | 40.965 | $ | |
RIO | 4.35% | 67.52 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.86% | 7 | $ | |
JRI | 0.31% | 13.342 | $ | |
BCE | -0.33% | 34.985 | $ | |
RELX | -0.87% | 48.44 | $ | |
VOD | -0.25% | 10.085 | $ | |
BP | -0.15% | 32.81 | $ |
Multiple arrests after US woman uses machine-assisted suicide in Switzerland
Swiss police said Tuesday they arrested several people after a US woman used a controversial suicide pod to end her life.
The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which replaces the oxygen inside it with nitrogen, causing death by hypoxia, was used on Monday at a forest location near the German border.
The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, providing death without medical supervision, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country but assisted dying has been legal for decades.
Switzerland's interior minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told lawmakers on Monday that the Sarco was "not legal".
Police in the northern Schaffhausen canton said several people had been taken into custody and face criminal proceedings.
- 'Peaceful, fast, dignified' -
The Last Resort organisation, an assisted dying group, presented the Sarco pod in Zurich in July, saying they expected it to be used for the first time within months, and saw no legal obstacle to its use in Switzerland.
In a statement to AFP, The Last Resort said the person who died was a 64-year-old woman, who was not named, from the midwestern United States.
She "had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise", the statement said.
"The death took place in open air, under a canopy of trees, at a private forest retreat."
The association's co-president Florian Willet was the only other person present, and described the woman's death as "peaceful, fast and dignified", according to the statement.
- Several arrests -
The cantonal public prosecutor's office "has opened criminal proceedings against several people for inducement and aiding and abetting suicide... and several people have been placed in police custody," a police statement said.
The public prosecutor's office had been informed by a law firm on Monday that an assisted suicide had taken place at a forest hut in Merishausen.
The police, the forensic emergency service and the public prosecutor's office "went to the crime scene".
The Sarco suicide capsule was secured and the deceased taken away for an autopsy.
"Several people in the Merishausen area were taken into police custody," the statement said.
The Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said one of its photographers had been arrested by Schaffhausen police.
- Sarco: 3D-printable capsule -
Tested in a workshop in Rotterdam, the Sarco was invented by Philip Nitschke, a leading global figure in right-to-die activism.
The 3D-printable capsule cost more than 650,000 euros ($725,000) to research and develop in the Netherlands over 12 years. Future Sarcos could cost around 15,000 euros.
In a statement, Nitschke said he was "pleased that the Sarco had performed exactly as it had been designed to do: that is to provide an elective, non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person's choosing".
To use the Sarco, the person wishing to die must first pass a psychiatric assessment.
The person climbs into the purple capsule, closes the lid, and is asked automated questions such as who they are, where they are and if they know what happens when they press the button.
In July, Nitschke explained that once the button is pressed, the amount of oxygen in the air plummets from 21 percent to 0.05 percent in less than 30 seconds.
The Sarco monitors the oxygen level in the capsule, the person's heart rate and the oxygen saturation of the blood.
Nitschke's Exit International organisation, which owns the Sarco, is a non-profit group funded by donations. The only cost for the user is 18 Swiss francs ($21) for the nitrogen.
- Suicide law -
In July, Willet said Switzerland was "by far the best place" for the Sarco to be used, due to its "wonderful liberal system".
Swiss law generally allows assisted suicide if the person commits the lethal act themselves.
But interior minister Baume-Schneider, taking questions in parliament on Monday, said: "The Sarco suicide capsule is not legally compliant in two respects.
"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 article of the Chemicals Act," she said.
Fiona Stewart, who is on The Last Resort's advisory board, said the group was acting on legal advice, which "since 2021 has consistently found that the use of Sarco in Switzerland would be lawful".
N.Esteves--PC