Police in the northern Swiss canton of Schaffhausen said an “assisted suicide” involving a device called the Sarco took place on Monday in a forest in the Merishausen area, adding that “several people” had been arrested and prosecutors had opened an investigation on suspicion of abetting and abetting suicide.
The "death machine" called Sarco at the place where a 64-year-old American woman is believed to have committed suicide using this device. Photo: CNA
Never before used, the Sarco is a portable machine the size of a single bed that allows a person lying inside to press a button to inject nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person then falls asleep and suffocates within minutes.
By providing euthanasia without medical supervision, Sarco has raised a number of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland.
According to a government website, Swiss law allows assisted suicide as long as the person commits suicide without "outside assistance" and those helping the person die do not do so for "any selfish motive".
Exit International, a Netherlands-based suicide support group, said it was behind the 3D-printed device, which cost more than $1 million to develop. The Last Resort, a Swiss subsidiary of Exit International, then unveiled the Sarco in Zurich in July.
The Last Resort said it hoped to see the device in use for the first time within a few months and saw no legal obstacles to its use in Switzerland. However, Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told lawmakers on Monday that the Sarco was “illegal”.
In a statement to AFP, The Last Resort said the person who died in Switzerland on Monday was an unnamed 64-year-old woman from the US Midwest. The statement said she had "suffered for many years from a number of serious problems related to a severe immunodeficiency".
A man takes a photo of the Sarco, a device that allows users to control the timing of their death by entering a sealed chamber and replacing the oxygen inside with nitrogen. Photo: CNA
After receiving the report of the suicide, police, forensics and representatives of the prosecutor's office arrived at the scene. The Sarco suicide aid chamber was sealed and the deceased was taken for autopsy.
The Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported on Tuesday that Swiss police had arrested a Swiss photographer who wanted to take pictures of the use of Sarco. The photographer is currently being held at a police station in the canton of Schaffhausen, the newspaper said.
Nguyen Khanh (according to AFP, AP, CNA)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/canh-sat-thuy-si-bat-mot-so-nghi-pham-trong-vu-su-dung-may-tu-tu-post313768.html
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