The Daily Mail has learned that Dr. Philip Nitschke has committed to using a 3D printer to create a new machine in the Netherlands for use in a country other than Switzerland, where the original pod was seized. The announcement comes after Nitchke's colleague, Dr. Florian Willet, was detained in a Swiss woodland after a 64-year-old woman drove to Merishausen to commit suicide while utilizing the device, which is a death machine that causes hypoxia by releasing nitrogen gas into a sealed chamber.
Despite the Swiss government's ban on the Sarco Pod in most sections of the country, Dr. Willet had set it up for the American woman and presided over her death. Authorities said Dr. Philip Nitschke watched the woman's death via video stream. Investigators investigating her death reported last week that she was discovered with strangulation marks on her neck, and Dr. Willet's prison sentence was prolonged. However, Willet has not been charged with homicide.
The Last Resort and Exit International, the organizations responsible for Sarco, have maintained that its first user voluntarily entered the capsule and pressed a button to fill the chamber with nitrogen gas, thereby inducing her own death. Nevertheless, Chief Prosecutor Peter Sticher has since heightened the suspicion of "intentional homicide" by implying in court that the woman may have been strangled, as per the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.
The woman, a mother of two adult sons, endured chronic pain for years as a result of skull base osteomyelitis. Swiss outlet NZZ reported that the markings on her neck may be indicative of the condition's manifestation in the bone marrow. The woman purportedly sought suicide after the pain was not alleviated by treatments, as per the paper.
Dr. Nitschke, an avid advocate for euthanasia, has vowed to continue his work and plans to assist another individual in dying as soon as possible, despite the ongoing investigation, the confiscation of the death capsule, and the fact that Dr. Willet remains behind bars five weeks later.
