Advocacy groups behind a so-called suicide capsule said Sunday they have suspended the process of taking applications to use it — which numbered over 370 last month — as a criminal investigation into its first use in Switzerland is completed.

The president of Switzerland-based The Last Resort, Florian Willet, is being held in pretrial detention, said the group and Exit International, an affiliate founded in Australia over a quarter century ago.

Swiss police arrested Willet and several other people following the death of an unidentified 64-year-old woman from the U.S. Midwest who on Sept. 23 became the first person to use the device, known as the “Sarco,” in a forest in the northern Schaffhausen region near the German border.

  • Kraiden@kbin.earth
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    3 months ago

    It’s assisted in the sense that a doctor can help them insert an IV, load up the correct drugs, make sure they understand the procedure, and monitor to ensure it goes smoothly, but the patient themselves need to press the button that releases the drugs (or nitrogen in the sarco pods case)

      • Kraiden@kbin.earth
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        3 months ago

        If they are capable of giving consent, they are capable of activating the system themselves.

        You’re thinking of a big red push button, but a button can be a pad that you bite down on, or a eye twitch activated electrode, or any number of things.

        The important thing is they initiate the process themselves, so that they have the option to withdraw consent as easily as they gave it.

        True consent is not immutable.