Philip Nitschke, who is the director of the company behind the Sarco pod, acknowledged the latest controversy around his assisted suicide pods.
The assisted suicide activist behind a new “suicide capsule” broke his silence and slammed the accusations about his suspected first U.S. female customer being strangled as “absurd.”
Philip Nitschke, head of the advocacy group Exit International, said Wednesday he did not witness the woman’s death on Sept. 23 in person, but he saw it via video and claimed the device worked as planned.
He also clarified it was the first and only time it has been used so far.
Florian Willet, head of the Swiss affiliate of Exit International, was immediately taken into custody after being present for her death. He is reportedly still in custody.
Weeks later, Nitschke has broken his silence, citing desperation and fear for Willet’s plight. In an article published Wednesday, he told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung that he may remain behind bars for weeks or months until a possible trial.
He also fiercely denied accusations of foul play regarding the first-and-only death of a 64-year-old unidentified woman from the United States.
Nitschke, a trained medical doctor, said the woman had “compromised immune function” that made her “subject to chronic infection.”
The $1 million “Sarco” pod was designed to allow a person to die within minutes in a reclining seat after pushing a button, which injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber.
The gas knocks the person unconscious and allows them to die by suffocation in minutes without pain.
On Oct. 26, Volkskrant reported Swiss Prosecutor Peter Sticherhad said in court that the woman may have been strangled.
Nitschke said of the allegations: “It is absurd because we’ve got film that the capsule wasn’t opened. She got in herself, pressed the button herself – and Florian rang the police” after she died.
Source : https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/155318/suicide-capsule-creator-Sarco-pod-breaks-silence