Arrests follow death of US woman in controversial suicide pod

Several people were taken into custody yesterday after the controversial Sarco suicide pod was used to end a woman's life, Swiss police said.

Police in the northern Schaffhausen canton said the capsule had been used on Monday at a forest hut, after which several people were taken into custody and are now facing criminal proceedings.

The capsule has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland, where active euthanasia is banned, but assisted dying has been legal for decades.

The space-age-looking Sarco capsule, first unveiled in 2019, is a portable, human-sized pod which replaces the oxygen inside it with nitrogen, causing death by hypoxia.

It is self-operated by a button on the inside, providing death without medical supervision.