'If you want to...': 8 chilling words doled out by suicide pod to American woman

The morbid suicide pod that claimed its first victim on Monday in Switzerland, doled out chilling words before she pressed the button. The Sarco suicide pod reportedly told the 64-year-old American woman to press the button if she wanted to die.

“If you want to die, press this button,” the machine said, as reported by AFP.

Named Sarco, short for “sarcophagus", the suicide pod is a 3D-printed chamber in which people can die within minutes after going ahead with the grave act. It has been termed the "Tesla of euthanasia"

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The chamber is filled with nitrogen gas, triggering the user’s oxygen levels to drop to deadly levels. However, the person can exit it using an emergency button.

The woman's death led to several arrests since the machine had not received official approval for use. The assisted suicide took place in a forest cabin in Merishausen and was witnessed by only one person, Florian Willet, the co-president of assisted-suicide group Exit International’s Swiss affiliate, the Last Resort.

He described the death as “peaceful, fast and dignified,” the organisation said.

The woman was suffering from “severe immune compromise,” Exit International said.

Also Read:Swiss authorities open probe, make arrests after woman dies in ‘suicide capsule’

Those arrested are under investigation for alleged incitement and accessory to suicide. A photographer with the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant was among those arrested, the outlet said Tuesday.

'Pleased the Sarco performed exactly as intended'

After the woman's death, Exit International director Dr. Philip Nitschke said that he was “pleased that the Sarco had performed exactly as it had been designed… to provide an elective, non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person’s choosing.”

Switzerland is one of the few countries that allows people to legally end their lives through assisted suicide. As per the law, the person must take their life without “external assistance” from a doctor, but others can help provided they do not do so for a “self-serving motive.”

However, euthanasia, which involves a medical professional such as a doctor, is prohibited in Switzerland. The Sarco suicide pod faces grim chances of getting approval as Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider suggested Monday that it might never gain legal status.

“It does not fulfil the demands of the product safety law, and as such, must not be brought into circulation,” she said.