Several people are detained in Switzerland in connection with suspected death in a ‘suicide capsule’

Warning: The article contains discussion of suicide. Reader discretion is advised.

Police in northern Switzerland said Tuesday that several people have been detained and a criminal case opened in connection with the suspected death of a person in a new “suicide capsule.”

The “Sarco” suicide capsule, which has never been used before, is designed to allow a person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes.

Prosecutors in Schaffhausen canton were informed by a law firm that an assisted suicide involving use of the Sarco capsule had taken place Monday near a forest cabin in Merishausen, police said in a statement.

It said “several people” were taken into custody and prosecutors opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.

Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported Tuesday that police had detained one of its photographers who wanted to take pictures of the use of the Sarco. It said Schaffhausen police indicated the photographer was being held at a police station but declined to give a further explanation.

The newspaper declined to comment further when contacted by the AP.

Exit International, an assisted suicide group based in the Netherlands, has said it is behind the 3D-printed device that cost over US$1 million to develop.

Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive,” according to a government website.

Dr. Philip Nitschke, an Australian-born trained doctor behind Exit International, has told the AP that his organization has received advice from lawyers in Switzerland that use of the Sarco would be legal in the country.

In July, Swiss newspaper Blick reported that Peter Sticher, a state prosecutor in Schaffhausen, wrote to Exit International’s lawyers saying any operator of the suicide capsule could face criminal proceedings if it was used there — and any conviction could bring up to five years in prison.

Prosecutors in other Swiss regions have also indicated that use of the suicide capsule could lead to prosecution.

Over the summer, a 54-year-old U.S. woman with multiple health ailments had planned to be the first person to use the device, but those plans were abandoned.

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Associated Press writers Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.