Latest news with #PhilipNitschke
New York Times
a day ago
- Health
- New York Times
Euthanasia Advocate Who Assisted in Woman's Suicide Dies in Germany
Florian Willet, a euthanasia advocate who was detained by Swiss authorities last year after being present when an American woman ended her life using a chamber-like device, has died. Mr. Willet's death was reported in an obituary posted on the website of The Last Resort, his assisted dying group, written by Philip Nitschke, the inventor of the device, known as a Sarco capsule. Mr. Nitschke said in an email that Mr. Willet had died by assisted suicide, but further details about his death remained unclear. The police in Germany, where Mr. Willet died, could not immediately be reached for comment. Mr. Willet, who was 47, according to the obituary, was the only person with the American woman when she died using the Sarco device in a remote forest in Switzerland in September. He was arrested, along with three others, by the Swiss authorities, who said at the time that the group was under investigation for 'aiding and abetting suicide.' The incident amplified thorny questions surrounding assisted dying even in Switzerland, where laws around the practice have led thousands of people to seek assisted death from right-to-die organizations based there in recent years. Mr. Willet was released from pretrial detention in December, after which 'he was a changed man,' Mr. Nitschke wrote. 'Gone was his warm smile and self-confidence. In its place was a man who was deeply traumatized by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Euthanasia activist arrested over 'suicide pod' dies
A pro-euthanasia activist who was arrested following the death of a woman using the world's first so-called suicide pod has Florian Willet, 47, was reportedly the only other person present when a 64-year-old American woman took her own life using the device in a forest in Switzerland last pod's inventor Philip Nitschke told BBC News that Dr Willet died by assisted suicide in a separate statement, Mr Nitschke said Dr Willet had suffered psychological trauma following his arrest and detention in connection with the Switzerland death. If you are experiencing any of the issues mentioned in this story you can visit BBC Action Line for a list of websites and helplines that can offer direct help at any time. "In the final months of his life, Dr Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should," he Last Resort - an assisted dying organisation founded by Dr Willet to facilitate the use of the pod - said the arrest had left him "broken".The activist was held in pre-trial detention for 70 days while police investigated whether he had intentionally killed the woman - an allegation he was not charged to his death on 5 May, Dr Willet fell from a third-floor window, the group said, leaving him requiring surgery and needing to be "cared for by a full psychiatric team".While assisted dying is legally protected in some circumstances in Switzerland, it is strictly regulated, and the pod has encountered say the device - manufactured by Sarco - provides an assisted dying option which is not reliant on drugs or doctors and expands potential access. Critics fear the device's modern design glamorises suicide, and that the fact that it can be operated without medical oversight is 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 News has contacted the Swiss prosecutor's office for comment.
Sky News
3 days ago
- Health
- Sky News
Dr Florian Willet: Euthanasia advocate dies after being arrested over woman's 'suicide capsule' death
A euthanasia advocate has died after being detained following a woman's "suicide capsule" death in Switzerland. Dr Florian Willet, who was arrested over the first reported use of the Sarco pod, died on 5 May, months after falling from the third floor of his building, according to an obituary written by Australian-born doctor Philip Nitschke, who invented the capsule. Dr Willet was the co-president of The Last Resort, a Swiss affiliate of assisted dying group Exit International, and was the only person present during the death of a 64-year-old American woman in a forest cabin in Merishausen, northern Switzerland, in September 2024. Exit International said the woman suffered from "severe immune compromise" and she was the first person to die using the 3D-printed Sarco pod, which it said cost more than $1m (£747,440) to develop. The capsule is designed to allow a person inside to push a button that begins the assisted dying procedure. Dr Willet was arrested in the Swiss forest and placed in pre-trial detention for 70 days, with a prosecutor alleging that the pod had not worked and the woman had instead suffered injuries consistent with strangulation. Exit International claimed there was "no foundation" for the allegation, and previously said in a statement that the assisted suicide had been filmed and the footage had been provided to the prosecution. Dr Willet had described the woman's death as "peaceful, fast and dignified", Exit International said. Dr Nitschke, who lives in the Netherlands, said he was "pleased that the Sarco had performed exactly as it had been designed... to provide an elective, non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person's choosing". He added that his organisation received advice from Swiss lawyers that using the Sarco would be legal in the country. Dr Willet was released from pre-trial detention in early December, but "he was a changed man" who lost his smile and self-confidence, whose "spirit was broken" and who "seemed deeply traumatised by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation", according to Dr Nitschke. The 47-year-old sought psychiatric support in Zurich at Christmas, but discharged himself from the clinic before New Year's Eve. In January, Dr Willet fell from the third floor of his Zurich flat. "He did serious damage," Dr Nitschke said, claiming doctors had diagnosed Dr Willet with an acute polymorphic disorder brought on by "the stress of the pre-trial detention and the associated pressures". Dr Willet had surgery and went to rehab for his injuries in the three months after his fall. On 5 May, he died by assisted suicide in Cologne, Germany, Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reports. Assisted dying is legal in Germany. Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no "external assistance" and those who help the person die do not do so for "any self-serving motive". Switzerland is among the only countries in the world where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives. It is home to several organisations dedicated to helping people achieve this. However, some politicians have argued the law is unclear and sought to close what they say are legal loopholes, with health minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider suggesting the use of the Sarco would not be legal.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Tragic descent into darkness of the man who watched first Sarco pod suicide: Euthanasia advocate was 'broken' after ten weeks in a police cell then 'fell' from third-floor balcony before finally ending his life
Assisted dying campaigner Dr Florian Willet was the only person to witness the first Sarco pod death - watching as a gravely ill American woman entered the suicide machine and pushed a button to end her life. Her death, triggered when nitrogen gas flooded into the sealed chamber, was successful in the eyes of Willet and Sarco inventor Dr Philip Nitschke, who watched it via video link and described the woman's passing as 'peaceful'. But that day marked the beginning of a dark decline for Willet, who was arrested when dozens of police officers arrived at the scene in northern Switzerland and placed him in pre-trial detention. The 47-year-old spent ten weeks in a cell, with no contact with his partner Laura Schiesser or anyone else, according to Nitschke. While there, he discovered he was accused of homicide, with the chief prosecutor raising suspicions that the woman who died in Sarco may have been strangled. This accusation, which Nitschke and Willet's organisation The Last Resort said had no foundation, has since been 'quietly dropped.' 'It was a disgusting display on the part of the prosecutor, the damage they did to Florian was huge,' Nitschke told MailOnline. 'When he was released months later, he was a completely different person. They had broken him during this time,' Willet's partner Schiesser said in a statement. Shortly after he was released from detention in December, Willet was found seriously injured beneath his balcony, in what those close to him say was a failed suicide attempt. After months in hospital and receiving psychiatric help at a clinic in Zurich, he took his own life on May 5 at a facility in Germany, it was revealed this week. Now Nitschke and Schiesser have laid the blame for Willet's deteriorated mental state and death with Swiss authorities. 'The prosecutors' very enthusiastic use of pre-trial detention has ended in a tragic way,' Nitschke said, labelling their treatment of Willet as 'unscrupulous'. 'The authorities need to take a close look at themselves, they are the ones who are responsible.' He said The Last Resort's lawyers, who were also arrested at the scene of the Sarco death, had not anticipated that police would respond to an assisted suicide - which is legal under certain circumstances in Switzerland - so strongly. 'Lawyers told us the police would arrive, interview them and let them go home. There had been no expectation of what happened at all,' Nitschke said. 'To find yourself suddenly put in pre-trial detention, something they use for murder, must have been traumatising,' he added. 'While in detention, [Willet] then heard rumours and saw media reports of possible allegations of homicide. I'm not surprised that it was such a traumatic period.' Asked whether Willet could have been affected by witnessing the woman's death, Nitschke said ''I don' think so.' 'I talked to him during and after via video link that day. Obviously he wasn't enjoying the experience, but he's an extremely experienced person in the area having worked at Dignitas. He was a good person to be there.' But Willet's mental decline, which Nitschke described as psychosis, hit him hard after he was released from detention. 'It was impossible to speak to him, when he came to my office he thought people were pumping in strange gasses under the door, he thought people were listening to him through the phones. He was hallucinating and hearing things,' Nistchke said. 'It was episodic psychosis, he was seriously delusional,' he said, adding that clinicians had provided him with information on Willet's mental state which supported this. 'He wasn't anything like the person I had known. When he said he was going back to the clinic in Zurich I was pretty pleased. 'He was showing signs that he was improving, then a few days later things were not better.' While Nitschke says he was in regular contact with Willet over the past few months, he said he had no longer been the man he once knew. He had expected to see Willet at a conference in Switzerland in mid-May, but his friend did not turn up. Willet's partner said of his final months: 'He slipped away from his friends more and more and I could hardly get close to him. 'At some point, I had to realize that I could only be there, but I couldn't actively help, even if I tried.' Schiesser added that the once 'cheerful, humorous' Willet 'didn't want to go on like this'. She reported him missing last month, and eventually it was discovered that he had passed away. The Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office announced on Monday that it would offer its 'sincere condolences' to Willet's relatives and that it would discontinue the criminal case against him related to Sarco. 'The criminal proceedings against the other defendants will continue,' the prosecution added. Nitschke confirmed to MailOnline that he was among those still being investigated in connection with the US woman's death. MailOnline has contacted the Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office for additional comment.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Suicide pod activist takes his own life after being arrested for murder of woman who used the Sarco pod he promoted
A euthanasia advocate who was quizzed by murder detectives after the death of a woman using a controversial Sarco euthanasia pod has died by assisted suicide, it was announced yesterday. Dr Florian Willet, 47, was arrested in September 2024 following the death of the 64-year-old woman after police claimed there were strangulation marks on her neck. He was the only person present for the death of the woman, who was the first person to use the Sarco suicide device, which had been set up in a forest near Merishausen, Switzerland. Dr Willet was held when police arrived at the scene and he remained in custody for 70 days as investigators probed the circumstances surrounding the death. The public prosecutor said that there had been a 'strong suspicion' that 'intentional homicide' had been at play. But these accusations were said to have such a traumatic effect on the author and activist that he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice before his death on May 5. Exit International Director Dr Philip Nitschke, who invented the Sarco pod, wrote yesterday: 'When Florian was released suddenly and unexpectedly from pre-trial detention in early December 2024, he was a changed man. 'Gone was his warm smile and self-confidence. In its place was a man who seemed deeply traumatized by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation.' Dr Nitschke told Dutch news outlet Volkskrant that Dr Willet died last month in Cologne 'with the help of a specialized organization'. In Dr Willet's obituary, which yesterday announced his death, Dr Nitschke revealed that the 47-year-old had 'fallen' from the third floor of his property in Zurich earlier this year, causing him 'serious damage'. Dr Nitschke said he was fully assessed by a psychiatric team during his three-month recovery, who said Dr Willet had developed 'an acute polymorphic psychotic disorder'. He says this had been brought on 'following the stress of pre-trial detention and the associated processes'. Dr Nitschke added: 'No one was surprised. Florian's spirit was broken. He knew that he did nothing illegal or wrong, but his belief in the rule of law in Switzerland was in tatters. 'In the final months of his life, Dr Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should.' Dr Willet had informed Swiss authorities after the woman's death and they quickly descended on the forest. Police discovered the woman's lifeless body inside the pod and arrested several people. Dr Willet was detained with two lawyers and a Volkskrant photographer who had been taking pictures of the pod and documented the woman arriving in the woodland. The public prosecutor in the Schaffhausen canton said that Sarco's creators had been warned not to use the device in the region, but that the warning had not been heeded. 'We warned them in writing,' prosecutor Peter Sticher said in September. 'We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.' Dr Willet described the death in the controversial capsule as 'peaceful, fast and dignified'. Following allegations of 'strangle marks' on the first person to use the Sarco, a person close to Swiss Sarco operator The Last Resort said she had previously been diagnosed with skull base osteomyelitis. The disease could manifest as an infection of the bone marrow, which could have been responsible for the marks on her neck resembling strangulation marks, the person told Swiss outlet NZZ. The pod is designed so that the push of a button injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, with the person inside then dying by suffocation within a few minutes. Before his arrest Dr Willet said he had 'considered' suicide at the age of five. His father died by suicide when he was 14 years old and he said he was 'completely fine with it.' He added: 'I was extremely sad because I loved my father. But, I understood immediately my father wanted to do this because he was a rational person, which means that expecting him to remain alive just because I need a father would mean extending his suffering.'
