A euthanasia advocate has died after being detained following a woman’s “suicide capsule” death in Switzerland.
Content warning: this article contains references to suicide
Dr Florian Willet, who was arrested over the first reported use of the Sarco pod, died on 5 May, months after falling from the third floor of his building, according to an obituary written by Australian-born doctor Philip Nitschke, who invented the capsule.
Dr Willet was the co-president of The Last Resort, a Swiss affiliate of assisted dying group Exit International, and was the only person present during the death of a 64-year-old American woman in a forest cabin in Merishausen, northern Switzerland, in September 2024.
Exit International said the woman suffered from “severe immune compromise” and she was the first person to die using the 3D-printed Sarco pod, which it said cost more than $1m (£747,440) to develop.
The capsule is designed to allow a person inside to push a button that begins the assisted dying procedure.
Dr Willet was arrested in the Swiss forest and placed in pre-trial detention for 70 days, with a prosecutor alleging that the pod had not worked and the woman had instead suffered injuries consistent with strangulation.
Exit International claimed there was “no foundation” for the allegation, and previously said in a statement that the assisted suicide had been filmed and the footage had been provided to the prosecution.
Dr Willet had described the woman’s death as “peaceful, fast and dignified”, Exit International said.
Dr Nitschke, who lives in the Netherlands, said 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”.
He added that his organisation received advice from Swiss lawyers that using the Sarco would be legal in the country.
Dr Willet was released from pre-trial detention in early December, but “he was a changed man” who lost his smile and self-confidence, whose “spirit was broken” and who “seemed deeply traumatised by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation”, according to Dr Nitschke.
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The 47-year-old sought psychiatric support in Zurich at Christmas, but discharged himself from the clinic before New Year’s Eve.
In January, Dr Willet fell from the third floor of his Zurich flat.
“He did serious damage,” Dr Nitschke said, claiming doctors had diagnosed Dr Willet with an acute polymorphic disorder brought on by “the stress of the pre-trial detention and the associated pressures”.
Dr Willet had surgery and went to rehab for his injuries in the three months after his fall.
On 5 May, he died by assisted suicide in Cologne, Germany, Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reports. Assisted dying is legal in Germany.
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”.
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Switzerland is among the only countries in the world where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives. It is home to several organisations dedicated to helping people achieve this.
However, some politicians have argued the law is unclear and sought to close what they say are legal loopholes, with health minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider suggesting the use of the Sarco would not be legal.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email [email protected] in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
