SWITZERLAND – Police in Switzerland made multiple arrests after someone reportedly ended their life using a so-called suicide pod, in apparently the first case of its kind. Police in the Schaffhausen region said they arrested “several persons” on suspicion of inciting, and aiding and abetting suicide after someone died reportedly by using a pod made by the company Sarco on Monday.

While assisted dying is legally protected in some circumstances in Switzerland, the Sarco pod has encountered some opposition. Officers recovered the device and body at the scene. The company behind the controversial pod says it can be solely operated by the person seeking to end their own life, without medical supervision.

Police said it was used on Monday at a forest hut in the Merishausen area, a sparsely populated part of Switzerland on the German border. Police said they were tipped off by a law firm about a suicide involving the device. The number of people arrested and their identities were not disclosed. The deceased also was not named.

In July, a pro-assisted dying group, which promotes the Sarco device, said it anticipated that it would be used for the first time this year. Advocates say it provides an option not reliant on drugs or doctors, and that it expands access to euthanasia as the portable device can be 3D-printed and assembled at home.

However, there also has been opposition in Switzerland, despite the country having some of the world’s most protective laws surrounding assisted dying. Critics fear the device’s modern design glamorises suicide and the fact that it can be operated without medical oversight is concerning. Assisted dying is illegal in the UK and in most other European countries, but thousands have travelled to Switzerland over the years to end their own lives. (BBC)…[+]