Suicide Capsule Takes 1 Woman's Life In Switzerland, Police Arrest Involved Parties

The Sarco suicide capsule. (Wikimedia Commons-Ratel)

JAKARTA - Swiss Police detained a number of people following the use of Sarco's suicide capsule to end a woman's life.

The northern Schaffhausen regional police said the arrests were made yesterday after the capsule was used in a hut in the Merishausen forest on Monday this week.

"Several people in the Merishausen area were detained by the police," read a police statement, quoted from AFP, Tuesday, September 24.

The forensic team and the public prosecutor's investigators also jumped into the scene at the time of the arrest.

Meanwhile, the Sarco Capsule has been confiscated and the body of a female suicide is taken to the hospital for an autopsy.

The Sarco capsule, which looks like a space technology, was first introduced in 2019. This man-sized portable capsule when operated replaces oxygen in it with nitrogen, which causes death from hypoxia.

The organization called The Last Resort which introduced the Sarco Capsule in Zurich in July 2024 said its use in Switzerland did not experience legal obstacles.

The Last Resort said the person who died using the capsule was a 64-year-old woman from the United States.

"The general prosecutor's office in the Schaffhausen region has processed crimes against several people for persuading and helping and conspiring to commit suicide... and several people have been detained by the police," the police continued in a statement.

Swiss Federal Council member Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said there were two aspects that caused Sarco's suicide capsule to violate the law.

"First, the capsule does not meet the legal requirements for product safety and therefore cannot be marketed. Second, the appropriate use of nitrogen is not in accordance with the objectives of the Chemical Law," Schneider said in a parliamentary question and answer session on Monday this week.

If you need consultation assistance to overcome the problem of depression, mental stress or mental health. Including knowing or seeing people who want to commit suicide, you are welcome to contact the hotline of the Indonesian Ministry of Health's emergency service facilities (Kemenkes) at number 119.