He’s been called everything from ‘Dr Death’ to the ‘Elon Musk of assisted suicide.’
Now, Dr Philip Nitschke, the controversial Australian right-to-die campaigner who devised a space-age looking capsule to help the terminally sick end their lives, has seen his creation put into practice.
Nitschke says he watched by livestream as a US woman became the first person to die using his Sarco pod. The 64-year-old ended her life ‘under a canopy of trees’ in Switzerland, according to the group that helped her.
Police in northern Switzerland said that several people were detained on Monday, and that prosecutors had opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.
But Nitschke says everything went according to plan.
‘It looked exactly as we expected it to look. My guess is that she lost consciousness within two minutes and that she died after five minutes,’ Nitschke told Dutch media after the event.
Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke (pictured), also known as ‘Dr Death’, is a former physician and head of the voluntary euthanasia campaign Exit International
‘We saw sudden, small contractions and movements of the muscles in her arms, but she was probably already unconscious by then.’
The woman, believed to be a Midwestern mom-of-two, had reportedly been suffering with ‘a very serious illness that involves severe pain’ and had wished to die for ‘at least two years’.
The death in Switzerland and subsequent police probe cap off decades of work for Nitschke — a renegade physician who has been at odds with officials many times throughout his career.
Campaigners say the terminally ill have a right to end their suffering, but critics say assisted suicides and euthanasia are a slippery slope that leads to the vulnerable being pressured into early graves.
Nitschke’s capsule, first unveiled in 2019, allows its user to push a button inside that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes.
Nitschke, a leading global figure in right-to-die activism, revealed how his device worked at a press conference in July.
He 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.
‘Within two breaths of air of that low level of oxygen, they will start to feel disorientated, uncoordinated and slightly euphoric before losing consciousness,’ Nitschke said.
‘They will then stay in that state of unconsciousness for… around about five minutes before death will take place,’ he added.
The Sarco monitors the oxygen level in the capsule, the person’s heart rate and the oxygen saturation of the blood.
‘We will be able to see quite quickly when that person has died,’ said Nitschke.
Asked whether anyone can change their mind at the very last minute, Nitschke said: ‘Once you press that button, there’s no way of going back.’
The 3D-printable capsule cost more than 650,000 euros ($710,000) to research and develop in the Netherlands over 12 years.
The Sarco’s inventor Philip Nitschke pictured at a press conference in Zurich on July 17
Cops seized the Sarco capsule and arrested a number of people in the Merishausen area were taken into police custody.
They were developed by Exit International, a non-profit headed by Nitschke that has pushed for the legalization of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide.
They got their name, Sarco, as an abbreviation for the sarcophagus coffins that were used in Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece.
The former physician has offices in Amsterdam but hails from South Australia, a state that introduced new assisted-dying laws in January 2023.
He has a history of devising ‘death machines’ back to the 1970s that led him to clash with Australian authorities.
The campaigner had his medical license suspended in 2014 for supporting Perth man Nigel Brayley, 45, in taking his own life with the deadly drug Nembutal.
He said he had received a letter from the board saying his beliefs were ‘incompatible with medical practice’.
Mr Brayley illegally imported the deadly drug Nembutal and died in May 2014 after attending an Exit International workshop in Perth and buying the Peaceful Pill handbook.
In emails, the Perth man admitted to Dr Nitschke he did not have a terminal illness, but was ‘suffering,’ The ABC reported.
The euthanasia campaigner successfully overturned the suspension in New South Wales Supreme Court after a year-long legal battle.
Because the Sarco pods resemble a futuristic vehicle, Nitschke has been dubbed ‘the Elon Musk of assisted suicide.’
But Nitschke’s willingness to help people end their lives has also seen him slammed as a ‘Dr Death.’
James Mildred, director of engagement at CARE, an anti-poverty group, says the devices may ‘trivialize’ and even ‘glamorize suicide.’
‘There are ethical ways to help human beings that don’t involve the destruction of life,’ Mildred said.
Meanwhile, Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of the alliance Care Not Killing, said it was ‘risible’ for Nitschke and other to pretend they could offer people a ‘quick pain free death.’
Fiona Stewart, member of the Last Resort poses next to the Sarco suicide machine in July
A view shows the login screen and release button for pure nitrogen in the Sarco suicide machine
It remains unclear whether Nitschke will face any repercussions following the death of the American woman in Switzerland.
The Last Resort, the Swiss firm behind the Sarco, said in a statement: ‘On Monday 23 September, at approximately 16.01 CEST, a 64-year-old woman from the Midwest in the USA died using the Sarco device.’
It said the co-president of the organization, Florian Willet, was the sole person present for the death, contrary to police reports.
According to Last Resort, Willet said the woman’s death had been ‘peaceful, fast and dignified’, taking place ‘under a canopy of trees, at a private forest retreat in the Canton of Schaffhausen close to the Swiss-German border.’
The organization said the woman ‘had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise.’
Police, including forensics teams, swooped on the scene after being notified by a legal firm that an assisted suicide with the device had taken place.
The Last Resort, who had anticipated that there would need to be an investigation after the launch of the device, said it had informed the police that it had been used.
Cops seized the Sarco capsule and arrested a number of people in the Merishausen area were taken into police custody.
A post-mortem will now be carried out on the deceased person by the Institute of Legal Medicine Zurich (IRMZ).
The Last Resort Advisory Board member and lawyer, Fiona Stewart said that the company was acting at all times on the advice of their lawyers.
‘Death with Dignity’: Dr Philip Nitschke speaks in San Diego, California in January 2003
Dr Philip Nitschke’s prototype ‘Sarco’ euthanasia pod – short for sarcophagus – is seen here being transported in Venice
The device was used on the same day as Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the National Council that she considers the use of the Sarco in Switzerland to be illegal.
‘The Sarco suicide capsule is not legal in two respects,’ Baume-Schneider reportedly said.
‘On one hand, it does not fulfill the demands of the product safety law, and as such, must not be brought into circulation,’ she said.
‘On the other hand, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the article on purpose in the chemicals law.’
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.
Switzerland is among the only countries in the world where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives, and is home to a number of organizations that are dedicated to helping people kill themselves.
