Authorities in Switzerland today made several arrests after the use yesterday, Monday, of an assisted suicide chamber, a type of sarcophagus that allows someone to take their own life without the help of a doctor, police said today.

“The prosecutor’s office in the canton of Shafhausen has initiated criminal proceedings against several people for inciting and assisting suicide, and many have been taken into temporary custody,” cantonal police said in a statement.

The prosecutor’s office in this small canton located in northern Switzerland, near Germany, was informed yesterday by a law firm that “an assisted suicide with the help of the Sarco chamber took place in a hut in the woods in Merischhausen in the afternoon,” according to police.

The first use of the “sarcophagus” assisted suicide – Legal and ethical issues

According to the Swiss media, it is the first time this suicide chamber called Sarco has been used, having taken its name from the word sarcophagus. “The Sarco suicide chamber was confiscated and (the body of the) man who died was taken (…) for a post-mortem,” police added.

This chamber takes the form of a small cabin in which the man who wants to end his life must lie down, then answer a series of questions to confirm he is conscious of what he is doing before he presses a button to release nitrogen.

He is expected to lose consciousness after a few inhalations and die within minutes, according to the association that promotes this chamber.

In July, the company promoting it had unveiled Sarco saying it wanted to go ahead with its first use in Switzerland, which caused a stir, as assisted suicide is allowed in the country but only with a doctor’s accompaniment.

The association promoting it had however announced at the end of July that the person who would be the first to use it, an American woman in her fifties, had been ruled out because of her deteriorating mental state.

Yesterday, Swiss Interior Minister Elizabeth Baum-Schneider said during a question-and-answer session in parliament that “the Sarco suicide chamber is against the law.”

First of all, it does not meet “the requirements in terms of product safety”. In addition, the use of nitrogen inside this capsule “does not comply” with the Chemicals Act, the minister explained.